Grizzly bears

	Grizzly bear

“The Grizzly Bear is the king of the forests. Maybe our Creator allowed us to have this majestic animal in this region signifying it is a very special place and that this animal too has a place in the world.” (Chief Quatsinas of the Nuxalk First Nation)

In August 2002 the Fairmont Luxury Hotels Chain (the largest in North America) began felling trees in its Chateau Lake Louise hotel site in Canada’s Banff National Park. The purpose? – to build a major seven-storey extension to its Convention Centre. When completed it will bring in an estimated 10,000 extra tourists each year. That they will include an already high-percentaged phalanx of eclectic trophy-hunters appears to merit little concern from the Fairmont Corporation. But for scientists, biologists and conservationists, alarm bells are ringing loudly! For Lake Louise’s environs are home to one of the only three concentrations of breeding female Grizzly Bears left in Banff National Park out of a total population of just 55 – 80 bears!

The response to Fairmont’s plan from the Alberta Endangered Species Conservation Committee was both terse and emphatic: “The provinces Grizzly Bear population faces extinction.” And an elegiac lament coloured the comment of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency* (EIA): “If Grizzly Bears are not safe in Canada’s flagship national park where will they have a future?” If the Fairmont Hotel Corporation has its way, the answer is “Nowhere!” By opening more of its doors to ever more murderous Trophy Hunters (mainly foreign!) the fate of the Bears will be irrevocably sealed.

In a press release dated January 21st 2003, Wendy Elliott, EIA campaigner, writes:

“It is outrageous that Fairmont Hotels is continuing with its construction at lake Louise. Banff’s wildlife has already been pushed to the brink by a juggernaut of commercial development. By building this Convention Centre extension, Fairmont is threatening the environment and wildlife that they wish to profit from.”

An estimated 70% of the earth's original forests have been destroyed or severely degraded (Forest Action Network – The Ecoforestry Solution). The force driving this destruction is our insatiable consumption of forest products for paper, cardboard packaging, disposable nappies and toilet paper.

Grizzly bear

Pulp production alone guzzles around 4 billion trees every year. UK per capita wood consumption is among the highest in the world with 50% comprising paper products: around 280 million rolls of kitchen paper are sold in the UK every year and roughly 12-20,000 trees are cut down to produce every edition of the Sunday Times Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Corporate power, corruption & the destruction of the world's forests (1996), 15). Since the UK has already destroyed most of its forests 90% of national timber and pulp consumption comes from imports, mainly from Scandinavia, Russia and North America (EIA, 15). The UK is British Columbia’s 4th largest customer of pulp and paper.

The Onaway Trust is a registered charity - number 268448.