Join Raincoast in the campaign to end the trophy hunt.

Help us purchase commercial hunting territories.

IMAGINE if your conservation investment could go directly to protecting the lives of wild animals, now and forever.

In 2005, our supporters helped us purchase a vast hunting territory and end commercial trophy hunting of grizzly bears in an area three times the size of Yellowstone National Park. We now want to build on that success.

Download 2011 brochure on the Spirt Bear Hunting Territory Acquisition

Download the mail in Donation Form

Help to purchase the Spirit Bear Hunting territory  donate here (Canada Helps) or here Network for Good (USA)

Threats to bears and wolves

For tomorrow’s children to see wild bears and wolves in coastal British Columbia, bold new conservation efforts are required. Coastal bears face numerous threats to their survival, including habitat loss, a declining supply of salmon, and trophy hunting. While some progress has been made on protecting bear habitat, declines in salmon stocks are likely reducing the number of new cubs. On top of this, the threat from trophy hunting continues through much of the Great Bear Rainforest, even in the new protected areas.

This is more than just an ecological issue. It’s also an ethical issue. Hunting these magnificent animals for entertainment and profit is wrong.

Our past accomplishments 

Raincoast has a track record with big projects and ideas. Understanding the constraints of the political landscape – which offers little hope for stopping trophy hunting – we pioneered a new approach to saving bears and wolves from hunters with high-powered rifles. In an unprecedented move that garnered worldwide attention, we purchased an exclusive 24,700 km2 hunting license in 2005 for $1.3 million. Our purchase ended commercial trophy hunting over this huge region. Grizzlies, wolves, and black bears were no longer targets for commercial trophy hunters throughout much of British Columbia’s central coast.

It has now been five years since our acquisition, and we have seen river valleys come alive with bears and wolves. The renewed presence of these animals has also spurred commercial wildlife viewing and local business opportunities.

Throughout this vast area, people armed only with cameras can find grizzlies feeding on spring sedges or wolf pups playing in tidal mud flats. The apprehensions of the past – when fears that the next set of watchful eyes were behind a hunting scope – are now gone.

Purchasing this tenure and ending the commercial trophy hunt would not have been accomplished without an outpouring of support from individuals, community groups, families, business leaders and others. The success of this initiative has reinforced our long-term objective to acquire additional commercial hunting rights on the BC coast. Our next accomplishment hinges on this same kind of broad-based support. We are thrilled to announce the next step in our plan.

Purchasing the spirit bear hunting territory

Recently, Raincoast began negotiations to acquire a hunting territory like no other – the primary place in the world where spirit bears (a white coloured black bear) roam. Despite a restriction on killing spirit bears, trophy hunting of black bears – that carry the recessive gene that causes the white coat – is allowed. Our purchase will not only protect one of the rarest bears in the world, it will also safeguard the genetically unique rainforest wolves we have studied for a decade. This new 3,500 km² license lies next to our existing hunting tenure, providing important connectivity between these refuges.

In May 2010, we secured an agreement to purchase this ‘spirit bear’ hunting tenure. We only have a few months to raise the necessary funds. With your help we can take this historic step.

Raincoast’s existing 24,700 km2 hunting territory is in green. We have a purchase agreement for the 3,500 km² spirit bear territory shown in yellow. Raincoast’s ownership of these two territories will end the commercial trophy hunting of bears and wolves in over 27,000 km2 of the BC coast. The estimated size of the tenures includes only land area.

Hunting license acquisitions on the BC coast

Financial objectives: Raincoast’s goal is to raise $370,000 to own this hunting territory by June 2011.

We made a down payment of $30,000 in July 2010.  Critical to the long-term success of any venture are the resources to undertake its annual operations.  As such, we have a separate fundraising goal for commitments to annual operating costs. Our annual expense to manage and operate our territories, maintain legal obligations, pursue other buyouts, promote the local benefits from wildlife conservation and monitor ‘our’ bear populations is $75,000 per year.

Acquisition costs

Purchase                                                 $320,000

Associated campaign costs                  $ 50,000

Total purchase                                       $370,00

Annual operations and monitoring  $75,000

How to support this opportunity !

Icons below take you to the secure on-line giving sites Canada Helps (Canadian donors) or Network for Good (US donors)

Network for Good – US donors

For more information please contact Brian Falconer or Chris Genovali  250-655-1229 ext 225