Youth Movement Successfully Helps Protect Canada’s Endangered Spirit Bear

The Spirit Bear Youth Coalition’s two-decade journey began as a high school letter writing campaign and grew into a global movement, with more than six million young people linked together through a broad coalition across more than 85 countries. Our ability to mobilize young people and create what was the largest youth-led conservation movement in the world was in part due to a clear, positive message and an easy request: Make your voice heard. By advocating for balance, proactively proposing tools to help the economy and the environment, and working with non-traditional allies, we were able to build support that united the usual divides – young/old, rural/urban, right/left. And as support grew, stakeholders began to work collaboratively with First Nation leadership, paving the way for the BC government to legislate a series of land-use agreements that protected 85% of the Great Bear Rainforest. The area - mostly crown land and more than twice the size of Belgium – achieved many conservation goals, but none more important than saving the last intact habitat of the spirit bear, ensuring their future for generations to come.