Spirit of Great Bear watches over Canadian rainforest

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — Great Bear Rainforest does not appear on any official map, but the name evoking native myths and legends is key to protecting western Canada's bears, whales, eagles and salmon.

Once written off as the "mid-coast timber supply area", the sprawling 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles) of vast wilderness is fast attracting eco-tourists as environmentalists seek to protect it from logging and mining.

Bounded on the west by ocean fjords and winding inlets reaching deep into dense forest and the Coast Mountain range to the east, the remote central and northern coastline of British Columbia is one of the largest and last intact temperate rainforests on earth.

As well as being the traditional land of the aboriginal people, it is...