Conservationist Shane Mahoney  challenged  resource developers to  find the balance- photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. –  Delivering a message  of  protecting the environment  to a capacity crowd of  resource industry reps  would seem to many  to be a  very difficult task, but  it’s one  Conservationist  Shane Mahoney  tackled with  passion  at last evening’s Natural Resource Forum dinner.

The Newfoundland native  is the  President and CEO  of Conservation Visions Inc.,  he has more than three decades of experience working as a scientist, wildlife manager, policy innovator and strategic advisor and is the Vice Global Chair  of  Sustainable Use  for  the International Union for  the Conservation of Nature.

As the keynote speaker  at the  kick off event for the annual  forum,  Mahoney  called upon industry  to find the ‘balance’ so that  resource extraction  doesn’t negatively impact the environment  or  society.  “My concerns  extend to the wild others we share this planet with,  but they  also extend with equal measure,  equal concern, equal passion to the people of the world”.

Getting the balance right for protecting  the environment , developing economies and  extracting  natural resources, is  simply, extremely difficult, it is never easy,  but there are some things  that we might agree  we can share  in our belief  system  of why it is possible and what the  things are that we should pay attention to as we try and achieve it.”

He referenced the collapse of the Northern Cod fishery  as an example of how rapid extraction of a resource  could impact  a  society “it had an absolutely devastating impact upon people I belong to,  and which taught us,  no matter how long you can be in the game,  no matter  how good you are at the game of  resource extraction,  no matter what institutions you may try to put in place,  great calamities, great difficulties which  impinge upon the homes and  the lives  and the  happiness of  good people can happen.”

He challenged those in the room, to  think beyond the checkboxes that must be ticked in order  to get the necessary permits to  move forward  with  resource extraction, but to go beyond what is required in order to attain  the social license.

He says trying to find  a ‘better way’  might start with a true valuation of all resources but says  innovative ideas will only be developed  if people come together with  good proposals as  innovation doesn’t come from “people working in silos”.  Mahoney says  this kind of  collaborative approach is working in other parts of the world “Let  us not be the last to ride this horse.”

Humans  are changing their attitudes  about  the environment said Mahoney  as his voice  rose to levels a  preacher  might  reach to press  a point to a congregation “What is happening  is there is a change taking place in societies the world over, that reflect increased empathy for wildlife  and animals generally,  increased concerns for the plant’s natural systems,  for fresh water for God’s  sake, and I’m not talking fresh water at the India Pakistan  border,   or parts of  Sahara in Africa,  I’m talking about concerns over water in the United States and Canada.”  And he says the concerns are not  going away.

He urged  all to be involved  in  trying to find the better way  of  doing things, “I can tell you that in this 21st century the  industries that  will be seen as the leading industries in the world,  will be those who go beyond the call of any government regulation  and decide to try, in whatever small scale,  whatever way  they choose, to do something  that is right for both their business and the environment in which they operate.”

“The challenges are not  government’s challenges” said Mahoney “the challenges  are  not industry’s challenges,  the challenges are not the public’s challenges, the challenges  are  OUR challenges.”

“We have one natural world,  one humanity, one chance.”