View from the West (December 02, 1991)

The mining industry, among others, has been repeatedly beaten over the head with the preservationist theme that 12% of the land must be in parks and wilderness areas ever since the publication in 1987 of Our Common Future. The report was prepared by the world commission on the environment and development chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland.

The popular soft-cover edition consists of 347 pages plus 53 pages of annexes. The commission’s focus was population, food security, loss of species, genetic resources, energy, industry and human settlement. The sub-headings from Part II of the book are:

— Population and Human Resources

— Food Security: Sustaining the Potential

— Species and Ecosystems: Resources for Development

— Energy: Choices for Environment and Development

— Industry: Producing More with Less

— The Urban Challenge

There is no mention of isolating land in parks and wilderness areas. In general the report reflects a concern for people, the improvement of their living standards through sustainable development and the preservation of what appears to be a rapidly declining number of species. The author writes under Species and Ecosystems: “The network of protected areas that the world will need in the future must include much larger areas brought under some degree of protection.” This conclusion was prompted by the belief that the planet’s species are under stress. (The exploration species certainly is.) This conclusion does not provide our industry with any problems as we know that the acts and regulations governing mineral exploration, development and production currently provide, at least from a mining perspective, a great deal of protection to all Crown lands in British Columbia. Today, the chances of British Columbia’s mining community to destroy a species, or an ecosystem, are nil.

Large single-use designations such as parks and wilderness areas were not recommended by the commission nor are they necessary to achieve the basic protection goals set out in the Brundtland report, particularly since so much of British Columbia is and will remain de facto wilderness.

The report clearly recognizes the need for economic growth and the obvious changes that will result in the physical ecosystem. The commission concluded that the reduction of non-renewable resources does not mean they should not be used, although “land should not be degraded beyond reasonable recovery.” It added: “Sustainable development requires that the rate of depletion of non-renewable resources should foreclose as few future options as possible.” To encourage development patterns to be “more compatible with the preservation of the extremely valuable biological diversity of the planet,” the commission concluded that “governments could think of parks for development,’ insofar as parks serve the dual purpose of protection for species’ habitats and development process at the same time.” A good idea that could only work in British Columbia if the area was called something other than a park.

The report recognizes that there are many signs that the loss of species and ecosystems is being taken seriously worldwide. Recently, the worldwide network of protected areas was reported to be four million square kilometres. In 1985, the percentage of protected lands in the continents ranged from 2.5% in the USSR, through 3.9% in Europe to a high of 8.1% in North America. Although the networks have expanded by 80% since 1970, the commission stated that “a consensus of professional opinion suggests that the total expanse of protected areas needs to be at least tripled if it is to constitute a representative sample of Earth’s ecosystem.” I guess that is where the 12% comes from: 3×3.9%.

In brief, the Brundtland commission report advocates sustainable development, use of non-renewable resources, no degradation of land beyond reasonable recovery, protection of the land including large areas under some degree of protection and the total expanse of protected areas to be tripled. The key words are people (and their needs), sustainable, development and protect, not isolate, preserve, wilderness and park.