An Opportunity to Help the Bears in Great Bear Rainforest

We’ve been exploring the coast, observing bears, and operating trips here for a long time. We’ve seen a lot of ideas come and go. There’s an idea we really like, and you have the opportunity to participate in it – and save a lot of bears.

Viewing a bear that trusts us, Great Bear Rainforest Summer trip

The single, effective act on the BC coast to protect bears from commercial trophy hunting has been done not by government, not by PR-based activism, and not by trying to negotiate moratoria or law changes, but by Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and caring citizens, many of them visitors like you on ecotourism trips: they have purchased the commercial guide outfitter licenses for a large region in the Great Bear Rainforest.

This protects the bears from commercial trophy hunting and results in far better bear viewing opportunities for you and us on our trips.

Now, Raincoast is raising money for the purchase of a new commercial hunting territory in the Great Bear Rainforest, in the region of the spirit bear and many coastal wolf families.

We encourage you to donate what you can. Here is the message from Raincoast:

“Raincoast now has a purchase agreement for a second commercial hunting territory in the Great Bear Rainforest, specifically in the home of the spirit bear. This purchase will expand our existing hunting territory by 3500 sq km and bring an end to commercial hunting of bears, wolves and other carnivores in almost 30,000 sq km of the BC coast. We need to raise $370,000 by May 2011 to secure the deal.”

Find out more: download the brochure Hunting License Acquisitions in the home of the spirit bear.

Donate toward the territory purchase.

You may also be interested in reading Maple Leaf Capt. Kevin Smith’s essay about the financial value of bear viewing over commercial trophy hunting in BC.