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The Coast Forest Conservation Initiative (CFCI)

Catalyst is a member of the Coast Forest Conservation Initiative (CFCI), a collaborative effort on the part of five forest product companies to resolve forest management issues within the Great Bear Rainforest, on the central and north coast of British Columbia. The CFCI played an instrumental role in the development of land use agreements which were ratified in 2006.

CFCI companies worked with major environmental groups - Greenpeace, ForestEthics, Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club - within a forum called the Joint Solutions Project. This provided an unprecedented opportunity to set aside past differences and to work together and with other stakeholders and identify mutually acceptable solutions.

The outcome - as reflected in the land use agreements - is an ecosystem-based forest management framework which integrates and balances the social, cultural, economic and ecological needs of the region.

Work continues towards full implementation by March 31, 2009, and progress is being measured with reference to defined benchmarks. In 2007, the collective efforts of Joint Solutions Project members, along with First Nations and the B.C. government, earned a World Wildlife Fund "Gift to the Earth" award.

Catalyst's involvement in the CFCI reflects our belief that creative, long-term solutions must replace conflict to achieve fundamental and sustainable change in forest management — change that can be broadly supported by stakeholders in British Columbia and internationally.