The coast of British Columbia is one of the last great temperate rainforests on Earth, a drowned, island-scattered shoreline where the mountains come down hard to the sea and the rain comes in off the Pacific in quantities that are difficult to convey. The Great Bear Rainforest stretches for hundreds of kilometers of fjord and inlet and old-growth cedar, and somewhere in it lives the spirit bear, a black bear born white, found nowhere else in the world.
Salmon are the engine of the whole system. They are born in the rivers, grow in the ocean, and return to spawn and die, and in dying they carry marine nitrogen deep into the forest, feeding bears and eagles and wolves and, through them, the trees themselves. Researchers can find ocean isotopes in the growth rings of cedars standing far from any shore. Break the salmon runs and the forest itself begins, slowly, to starve.
The organizations here have fought some of the most consequential conservation battles in Canadian history, over old-growth logging, over pipelines and tanker traffic, over open-net salmon farming. Much of the leadership has come from First Nations whose relationship with this coast reaches back millennia, and the agreements that now protect the Great Bear stand as a model for what Indigenous-led conservation can achieve.
Environmental Organizations in This Bioregion
176 organizations working across this landscape.
A Better Life Foundation
Starting with food security on a foundation of your support, A Better Life Foundation provides daily meals, training, education, practices inclusive hiring and takes...
Ancient Forest Alliance
The Ancient Forest Alliance works to protect BC's endangered old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.
Artisanal Gold Council
AGC is a global non-profit organization focused on improving conditions & outcomes for artisanal and small-scale miners throughout the developing world.
AWARE Whistler (Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment)
AWARE works towards a vision of a knowledgeable community that is engaged and empowered to preserve and enhance the environment on which it depends. Our work falls ...
BC Marine Trails Network
To work with First Nations and stakeholders to build, protect and promote a public network of marine trails allowing recreational navigation of the BC coastline with...
BC Parks Foundation
To enhance and pass on the legacy of British Columbia's world class protected areas.
Be The Change Earth Alliance
Be The Change Earth Alliance (BTCEA) is a Canadian charitable organization that empowers behavioural and systemic change toward global sustainability through educat...
BVLD Airshed Management Society
Clean air solutions we can all live with
Canadian Fair Trade Network
The Canadian Fair Trade Network (CFTN) is a non-profit organization that works to advance awareness and support for fair trade in Canada. It supports collaboration ...
Canopy Planet
Canopy protects the world’s forests by working hand in hand with companies to transform supply chains and catalyze innovative Next Generation Solutions.
Cetus Research and Conservation Society
Cetus works to facilitate the conservation of the marine environment by promoting community stewardship, raising public awareness, conducting research and fostering ...
Cheakamus Foundation for Environmental Learning
Our Mission: To create a hub of authentic, meaningful experiences that connect people to the natural world, and inspire sustainable values and behaviours.
Clayoquot Biosphere Trust Society
The Clayoquot Biosphere Trust (CBT) delivers programs and initiatives that enhance community and ecosystem vitality in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Region on the c...
Coast Mountain Academy
CMA's primary objective is to promote excellence in education through innovative and inspiring programming models. Following extensive research into the projected n...
Community Impact Real Estate
Founded in 1993, PHS is a charitable non-profit that manages more than 1,700 units across 35 supportive housing and shelter locations in Vancouver and Victoria, and...
Comox Valley Project Watershed
To empower communities to steward the land through ecological restoration, research, and education.
Cowichan Bio-Diesel Co-op
Cowichan Bio-Diesel Co-op is a 1% for the Planet nature nonprofit partner associated with climate adaptation. Based in Duncan, BC, Canada, it is included in the Idea...
Cowichan Green Community (CGC)
Cowichan Green Community: a food security-focused non profit in the Cowichan Region.
Cowichan Watershed Society
“Partnerships are so important. They build trust and understanding, which can open closed doors.” — Chief William Seymour, Cowichan Tribes, CWB Co-Chair (2018) ...
Cumberland Community Forest Society
gilakas’la / čɛčɛ haθɛč, We respectfully acknowledge that we live, work and play within the traditional territory of the K'ómoks Nation Since the year 2000 the Cu...
David Suzuki Foundation
Founded in 1990, the David Suzuki Foundation is a national, bilingual non-profit organization headquartered in Vancouver, with offices in Toronto and Montreal. We ...
Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust
Dogwood Initiative
Creating sustainable, community-centered solutions for lands and people.
Echo Conservation Society
Our mission is to protect wildlife and wilderness in British Columbia for future generations.
Ecojustice Canada Society
Our innovative legal cases take aim at the root causes of environmental harm. From coast to coast to coast, we use our legal expertise to protect wilderness and wil...
Ecotrust Canada
Building an economy that provides for life
Emerald Sea Protection Society
RESEARCH Bringing together sources of data that help build a picture of where we might find discarded fishing gear. Working out where the biggest problems are ...
Environmental Youth Alliance
EYA engages equity-seeking youth to become environmental stewards through free land-based environmental education and paid employment training programs.
FarmFolk CityFolk Society
FarmFolk CityFolk (FFCF) is a not-for-profit society connecting, empowering, and inspiring people to strengthen BC’s sustainable food systems.We develop, operate, a...
FED Urban Agriculture Society
FED builds gardens, empowers people to grow food, supports urban agriculture initiatives, and promotes a regenerative local food economy.
Food Stash Foundation
Food Stash Foundation is a registered Canadian charity founded in 2016 that rescues good surplus food and redirects it in a dignified way to those in need.
Foundations for Social Change
At Foundations for Social Change we seek solutions to ongoing social issues, like homelessness, with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Fraser River Discovery Centre Society
Our mission is to bring together the many stories and voices of the Fraser to discover, celebrate, and inspire passionate stewards of the river.
Fraser Riverkeeper
Fraser Riverkeeper - working to protect 30% of the Great Salmon Watershed by 2030.
Fraser Valley Conservancy
The Fraser Valley Conservancy is a regional land trust committed to placing lands in trust for our future.
Fresh Roots Urban Farm Society
Since 2011, we have grown the first schoolyard market gardens in Canada, fostered leadership and employment training through schoolyard farm programming, offered fo...
Friends of Maltby Lake Watershed Society
The mission & purpose of the Friends of Maltby Lake Watershed Society is: – to conserve the riparian, Garry Oak and coastal Douglas Fir ecosystems, the sensiti...
Galiano Conservancy Association
The purpose of the Galiano Conservancy Association is to protect, steward and restore Galiano Island ecosystems by creating a network of natural areas where a health...
Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA)
Georgia Strait Alliance (GSA) is dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Salish Sea.
Goldstream Volunteer Salmonid Enhancement Society / Goldstream Hatchery
The enhancement of salmonid stocks in the Goldstream River and other Vancouver Island and Gulf Island streams. To educate and encourage participation of residents, ...
Gorge Waterway Action Society
Our mission is to preserve and enhance the Gorge Waterway and the surrounding watersheds through environmental and climate education, restoration, biological monitor...
Greater Vancouver Food Bank
Providing healthy food to those in need
Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre
The Compost Education Centre is a project of the Victoria Compost and Conservation Education Society, a not-for-profit, charitable organization. Since 1992, the CE...