|
|
|
|
|
|
Who is FAN?
The Forest Action Network (FAN) has a network of over 500 activists, runs multiples campaigns, and maintains a year-round presence on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, in particular the Great Bear Rainforest.
Since legal mechanisms to halt environmentally destructive logging in Canada are weak and largely unenforceable, FAN has traditionally relied on widely publicized nonviolent direct action to both stop destructive logging directly, and to create media opportunities to effectively articulate important ecological principles.
How did FAN begin?
No More Roads Into Ancient Forests!
 |
FAN began as a loose collection of activists in the summer of 1993 who worked together to stop the destruction of the ancient temperate rainforests of Clayoquot Sound. Our first action project prevented road building in a pristine valley for eighteen days. On national television, FAN spokespeople were able to link logging road construction to wilderness destruction, a fact not well understood in Canada at the time. A banner strung between two trees demanded "No More Roads Into Ancient Forests". Since then we have carried out hundreds of action projects, from targeting raw log exports to stopping logging in pristine temperate rainforest valleys.
FAN recognizes the sovereignty of the First Nations people who have since time immemorial lived throughout the Great Bear Rainforest and other forest regions of the world. In 1995, at the invitation of Head Hereditary Chief Nuximlayc and other sovereignists of the Nuxalk Nation, FAN opened a full-time office in Bella Coola and launched the Great Bear Rainforest Campaign. In the words of Nuxalk Hereditary Chief Qwatsinas in 1997, "The strength of the situation is that you have true sovereigntists joined by true environmentalists attacking a true issue. It's a precedent." FAN now works with or assists close to a dozen First Nations.
Accomplishments
Some of FAN's accomplishments over the years include:
Helped to defer logging in 9 valleys in the Great Bear Rainforest: Hot Springs Creek, K'iskwatsta Creek, Skowquiltz River, Johnston Creek, Ingram-Mooto Lakes, Clatse Lake, Johnson River, Green, Ista.
Interfor - Great Bear Rainforest Destroyer
 |
Interfor, the largest logging company in the Mid Coast region of British Columbia, has been forced to scale down operations, and local residents are instead turning towards community-based forestry.
Carried out a joint FAN/Nuxalk Nation tree-sit and blockade preventing any logging in Ista, a remote temperate rainforest valley, for almost a month. The blockade resulted in the arrest of twenty-two people including three Nuxalk Hereditary Chiefs who were subsequently imprisoned for almost a month for carrying out their traditional responsibilities to protect their land. People in Canada and beyond were informed of the destruction of the Great Bear Rainforest, and of native sovereignty issues through local, national and international media coverage
Initiated the Temperate Rainforest Research Project (TRRP) in 1997 which conducted extensive research in the Skowquiltz valley, and helped to defer logging there.
Conducted slide show tours throughout Europe, the US and Canada, delivering the message of forest protection to tens of thousands of people. At various times, this has resulted in local FAN chapters springing up in up to 5 different countries, and up to 1
Countless actions against Home Depot
 |
0 cities in Canada.
FAN was a founding and active member of the Canadian Rainforest Network. Together with other environmental organizations, we created a comprehensive "Conservation Area Design" for the southern half of the Great Bear Rainforest.
Pioneered some of the first internet activism in Canada.
Campaigned against Home Depot, the world's largest retailer of lumber, and helped to force them to adopt a policy to phase out wood from endangered forests.
FAN is an active member of the Taiga Rescue Network, an international network of NGOs committed to halting the destruction of boreal forests.
Launched a campaign to stop the expansion of industrial salmon farming in British Columbia.
More information on past FAN campaigns and actions can be found in the "Archives" section.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
2004 Forest Action Network
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
