View Site Map

Featured Benefactor

Featured Sponsor

Did you know?

Only a quarter of 2,200 companies listed on the FTSE All-Word Developed Index are adequately managing their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risks, according to At risk? - How companies manage ESG issues at board level, a recent research report from Ethical Investment Research Services (EIRIS).  Over the three year period of the study (2005 - 2008), the financial sector was the worst performer, the resources sector was the best performer.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:30 AM - 9:15 AM
Room: Macdonald A–D

Speaker(s)
Reynold Hert CEO, Western Forest Products View
Valerie Langer Director of BC Coast Campaigns, ForestEthics
Ross McMillan President and CEO, Tides Canada Foundation
Art Sterritt Executive Director, Coastal First Nations

Description
Canada's Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest remaining coastal temperate rainforests on earth and its rare ecosystem has been home to First Nations communities for millennia. Over the past few decades, the "Great Bear" has become a testing ground for competing interests trying to create new models of economic and ecological sustainability. It is a remarkable story of creative collaboration among environmentalists, forest companies, First Nations, government, and philanthropic foundations. Come listen to the leaders who helped to forge this watershed agreement and establish the $120 million public/private Coastal Opportunities Fund.

Speaker Biographies
Mr. Hert was appointed President, CEO and Director of Western Forest Products Inc. on October 4, 2004. Prior to that he had spent 12 years with Weyerhaeuser in various roles, most recently in Kamloops, B.C., as Vice President, Canadian Forestlands and previously as Vice President, Canadian SPF Lumber. Mr. Hert joined Weyerhaeuser as part of the acquisition of Proctor & Gamble's Grande Prairie assets. He managed the Grande Prairie sawmill at the time. Mr. Hert started in the Canadian forest industry while a forestry student at the University of Toronto, working in timber cruising in Ontario and Alberta. Mr. Hert has a Bachelor of Science Degree (Forestry) from the University of Toronto.

Valerie Langer is the Director of BC Coast Campaigns for ForestEthics. She has been engaged in forest conservation campaigns for twenty years working as the forest campaigner for Friends of Clayoquot Sound from 1988 to 2004 and joining ForestEthics in 2006. She pioneered the market campaign strategy of influencing logging companies practices by engaging their commercial customer base and is now working to realize the globally unique model of conservation promised through the Great Bear Rainforest agreements.

Ross McMillan is the President and CEO of Tides Canada Foundation. He has worked with Tides since 2001, leading projects and managing key relationships with the Canadian environmental community and consortiums of donors, institutional partners, and international philanthropic foundations. He has over 25 years experience in the not-for-profit, public, and private sectors. Mr. McMillan was a principal architect of the conservation financing package to support the Great Bear Rainforest initiative, one of the most significant conservation programs in North American history.

Art Sterritt is the Executive Director of the Coastal First Nations, an alliance of First Nations on British Columbia's North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii working together to develop and implement regional conservation-based economic strategies in forestry, fisheries, and tourism in British Columbia. He was a founding Commissioner for the B.C. Treaty Commission, an independent and neutral body responsible for facilitating treaty negotiations between Canada, British Columbia and First Nations in B.C. Mr. Sterritt is a member of the Gitga?at First Nation and has served as the chief negotiator for the Gitga?at First Nation for the past 10 years. During this time he negotiated economic measures, agreements with governments, as well as developed strong relationships and partnerships with industry that has led to economic opportunities in his community. Mr. Sterritt has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of Aboriginal Rights and Title, as well as self-government and community economic development. He is also a well-known carver (wood, stone and jewelry) in B.C. and Canada. His work can be found in museums and private collections throughout North America.