The Coast Forest Conservation Initiative (CFCI) is a collaborative effort of five British Columbia forest products producers committed to finding new approaches to forest conservation and management in BC's Central and North Coast. Its purpose is to support development of an ecosystem-based conservation and management plan for the region that contains one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world.
The initiative is unprecedented in its partnership with environmental groups and its collaboration with First Nations, local communities and the BC Government to develop an ecosystem-based plan that fully integrates social, economic and ecological needs.
In order to develop the plan, an independent science team conducted the most comprehensive analysis of these globally significant forests ever undertaken. The science team's final recommendations for an ecosystem-based management framework were delivered in March 2004.
In March 2006, the province, First Nations and stakeholders agreed to fully implement land use plans and EBM by March 2009.
In March 2009, a plan to protect this globally significant temperate rainforest region on Canada's Pacific Coast was endorsed by the British Columbia Government, First Nations, environmental groups, forest companies and coastal communities. It took almost fifteen years of conflict, negotiation, multi-interest planning backed by independent science and the intervention of international forest products customers to reach this milestone.