We are working towards ending commercial trophy hunting in the Southern Great Bear Rainforest tenure
An excerpt from our annual report, Tracking Raincoast into 2023.
One of our longest running projects at Raincoast has been our Safeguarding Coastal Carnivores campaign, which seeks to stop commercial trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest. Since 2005, we have purchased five hunting tenures, extinguishing guided trophy hunting within those regions in perpetuity. This is the best way to ensure that changes in political leadership don’t impact coastal wildlife. We currently control the hunting rights in approximately 39,000 km2 of the Great Bear Rainforest with our Coastal First Nations partners.
We are raising funds to purchase one of our biggest tenures yet, the 18,239 km2 Southern Great Bear Rainforest tenure, and have until December 2023 to raise $1.92 million.
The Southern tenure is home to significant populations of grizzlies, cougars, black bears, wolves, and Roosevelt elk. It contains six major coastal inlets, over ten major river systems with critical estuaries, and countless smaller named and unnamed watersheds that support healthy ecosystems, from Smith Inlet to Toba Inlet. This purchase would support the new conservation economy, as there are more than 19 ecotourism companies who rely on respectful wildlife viewing.
Although Raincoast is not opposed to hunting for food, we have always considered trophy hunting unjustified and sought to bring an end to it. Acquiring the Southern Great Bear Rainforest tenure will bring us one step closer to our goal of ending all commercial trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest.
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
