Sustainable environmental management and stewardship are fundamental to building and maintaining resilient rural communities and robust regional economies. Recreational fish and wildlife opportunities, such as viewing, hunting and angling experiences, account for approximately $1.3 billion in expenditures in British Columbia, much of which is spent in rural areas of the province. The following organizations, programs and strategies can assist you with your environmental endeavours.
Organizations
The Province of British Columbia's Ministry of Environment is committed to sustainable environmental management and stewardship:
- The Ministry is dedicated to pursuing key climate action initiatives and implementing the Climate Action Plan.
- It works across government and with external partners to deliver Living Water Smart, B.C.'s comprehensive water plan;
- It implements the Conservation Framework across agencies and sectors in British Columbia to more effectively share stewardship of priority species and ecosystems.
- In 2011, BC Parks will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of British Columbia's first provincial park, Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island, endeavouring to engage the public in building connections with their parks.
- The Enviromental Assessment Office assesses the major developments proposed for British Columbia. The office pursues reciprocal arrangements and equivalency agreements with Environment Canada to meet government's promise of a single environmental assessment process for each project.
The Climate Action Secretariat leads and drives change to achieve the Province's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. It provides community energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions inventory reports for all B.C. local governments.
The BC Sustainable Energy Association helps you further your career by meeting the people you want to be working with.
The BuySmart Network can help you create a business case for buying smarter, greener, and with more social consciousness by offering research tools, learning circles, an online forum and technical advisory services. Subscribe to their free newsletters.
The Stewardship Centre for BC supports and advances stewardship activities in British Columbia by providing a centre for information exchange, communications and outreach, and by fostering partnerships and collaboration among those participating in stewardship in B.C.
The Pacific Carbon Trust offers carbon offsets, measured as one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or equivalent (CO2e) that is reduced or removed from the atmosphere as a result of emission-reducing (offset) activities.
Strategic Plans
The BC Energy Plan looks to all forms of clean, alternative energy in meeting British Columbians' needs in the provincial economy.
To enhance B.C.'s leadership role and help meet the province's electricity needs for clean, renewable power, the Bioenergy Strategy makes opportunities available to smaller energy producers with projects that are immediately viable through a two-part Bioenergy Call for Power focusing on existing biomass inventory in the forest industry.
The BC Brownfield Renewal Strategy is being led by the Ministry of Agriculture and is designed to encourage the redevelopment of brownfield sites that would otherwise sit idle due to possible contamination.
The Community Energy and Emissions Planning represents energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from community activities in on-road transportation, buildings and solid waste. Estimates of land use change from deforestation activities and enteric fermentation from livestock under the agricultural sector are also available at the Regional District level.
The BC Energy Efficient Building Strategy creates new ways for communities and First Nations to respond to the challenges of growth that supports regional economic development and innovative energy solutions.
The BC Climate Action Charter is a pledge for local governments to become carbon neutral, and measure and report on their communities' greenhouse gas emissions profile, and work to create compact, more energy efficient communities.
British Columbia is the first province to introduce legislation authorizing hard limits ("caps") on greenhouse gas emissions through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act. This legislation enables BC's participation in the GHG-emission-trading system being developed with other jurisdictions, through the Western Climate Initiative.
The Reporting Regulation, under the authority of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, set out the requirements for facilities within B.C. emitting 10,000 tonnes or more carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year to report greenhouse gas emissions to the British Columbia Ministry of Environment.
