By Jeremy Hainsworth

Vancouver, British Columbia - Canada on Tuesday unveiled a 16-million acre park - a protected area teeming with grizzly bears, wolves and wild salmon - in the ancestral home of many native tribes.

Closing another chapter of the wars between environmentalists and loggers, the Great Bear Rainforest is the result of an unusual accord between governments, aboriginal First Nations, the logging industry and environmentalists.

It will stretch about 400km along British Columbia's rugged Pacific coastline in the ancestral home of many native groups whose cultures date back thousands of years. The area also sustains the rare white spirit bear, a species found only in British Columbia.

"The agreement on these areas represents an unprecedented collaboration between First Nations, industry, local governments and many other stake holders in how we manage the vast richness of British Columbia's coast for the benefit of all British Columbians," said British Columbia's Premier Gordon Campbell, accompanied by native dancers and drummers for the announcement and formal First Nations blessing.

"The result is a strong marriage that balances the needs of the environment with the need for sustainable jobs and a strong economic future for coastal communities," he said.

Campbell said 4,4-million acres would be protected outright and managed as parkland, with another 11,6-million acres run under an ecosystem management plan to ensure sustainable forestry with minimal impact on the environment.

Full implementation of the protection project is not expected until 2009.

British Columbia's spectacular and lush evergreen forests have been the scene of decades of confrontation between environmentalists and loggers. Successful boycott campaigns in the 1990s led to large international companies turning away from British Columbia paper and wood products, forcing the government to find a negotiated solution.

"British Columbians are showing that it is possible to protect the environment and provide the economic foundation for healthy communities," said Lisa Math's, coast campaign co-ordinator for the Sierra Club of Canada's British Columbia Chapter. "This innovative rain forest agreement provides a real world example of how people and wilderness can prosper together."

The region is home to hundreds of species including grizzlies, black bears, the so-called spirit bear, wolves, cougars, mountain goats, moose and deer. The spirit bear is a rare white species and is also called the kerned bear. - Sapa-AP