Billionaire Chip Wilson Makes Record Donation to BC Parks Foundation

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With a record-breaking donation from local billionaire Chip Wilson and his wife Summer, the BC Parks Foundation will develop 311 hectares of pristine habitat in three locations, from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the northeast to the desert in the southeast. It was announced Thursday that it could be saved.

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Foundation Announces $100 Million Donation During Event at Stanley Park Pavilion, Launches BC Parks 25 x 25 Campaign to Engage Indigenous Peoples to Secure 25% of BC Land and Water protected. By 2025, in line with Canada’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

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The UN Convention requires signatories to protect 25% of their natural landscapes by 2025 and 30% by 2030 as the minimum necessary to sustain global biodiversity. .

“These are very ambitious goals, but they are an important decade for tackling climate change and biodiversity loss around the world,” said Andy Day, CEO of the BC Parks Foundation.

“It is also important to responsibly and safely enjoy nature and physical health through connection with nature,” added Day.

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The Wilsons are making donations through the Wilson 5 Family Foundation as a matching challenge to governments and other wealthy philanthropists in the 25 x 25 campaign.

“We hope this gift will make a big difference in our efforts to protect B.C.’s incredible natural wealth,” said Chip Wilson.

Wilson previously used his Lululemon estate to donate $4 million to help protect the coastal Douglas fir ecosystem in the Salish Sea. Earlier this year, he controversially invested $100 million in medical research into facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy to launch a political action group aimed at getting right-wing candidates elected to local councils. He spent $380,000 of his own funds.

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For BC Parks, the Wilsons’ contributions are focused on protecting three natural habitats:

Falling Creek Sanctuary is a 213-hectare area in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, shared by the Thorteau, West Moberly and McLeod First Nations. This land of lush native forest is designated for industrial use but is also important wintering habitat for elk, reindeer, deer and other mountain ungulates.

Named after famed ethnologist James Tate, Tate’s Sanctuary is an 81-hectare pristine prairie showcase adjacent to the Fraser Canyon village of Spence Bridge at the confluence of the Thompson and Nicola rivers. The land is in the territory of the Nlaka’pamux First Nation and is home to species such as the bighorn sheep, whose populations have plummeted due to disease and habitat loss.

Bourguiba Springs is a renowned 17-hectare biodiversity hotspot of historical significance for the Southern Okanagan Bighorn Sheep, and is home to seven federally endangered species. The springs and surrounding land are in British Columbia’s hottest and driest biogeographic climate zone with few protected areas.

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