Environmentalists have paid C$1.35 million ($1.2 million) to bar foreign sport hunters from a wilderness area on Canada's Pacific Coast, officials said Tuesday.
VANCOUVER — Environmentalists have paid C$1.35 million ($1.2 million) to bar foreign sport hunters from a wilderness area on Canada's Pacific Coast, officials said Tuesday.
The Raincoast Conservation Society hopes to eventually end all "trophy hunting" of bears, wolves and big game animals in the 20,000 square km (7,700-square-mile) area that international environmentalists have long called the Great Bear Rainforest.
The group purchased the commercial license of the only outfitting company permitted by British Columbia to guide hunters from outside the Canadian province on trips in the area to shoot animals as sport trophies.
"Buying the commercial trophy hunting rights is a major first step towards shutting down the carnivore trophy hunt on the coast of British Columbia," said Ian McAllister, the group's conservation director.
British Columbia residents are still permitted to hunt in the area, but native Indian leaders working with the conservation society say they will pressure the province to cancel all licenses for nonfood hunting.
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The environmentalists said they will work with residents of the area to develop a environmentally friendly tourism industry to replace the money lost with the end of hunting-related businesses.
Source: Reuters
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