Wilderness Committee

About Wilderness Committee:

Founded in 1980, Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC) is a grassroots charity working to preserve British Columbia’s environment.  The charity’s mission is to protect Canada’s biological diversity through strategic research and public education. Volunteers play an important role: the charity has over 60,000 members, donors and volunteers. In F2016, project and education spending made up 84% of program costs – membership costs accounted for the remaining 16%. WCWC has 25 active campaigns falling into one of five priority program areas: preserving wilderness, protecting wildlife, defending parks and public land, protecting public resources, and fighting climate change.

Major successes during the year include the following:

Preserving Wilderness: In December 2015, WCWC helped secure permanent protection of 30,000 hectares of wild, natural areas in Manitoba. This area represents land that WCWC identified as needing conservation protection through its Manitoba Conservation Hotspots campaign. The charity also reports protecting six wetlands Ecological Reserves during the year. 

Protecting Wildlife: In June 2015, WCWC’s work in improving habitat protection of sage-grouse proved successful when the male geese count increased 233% from 2014 in Saskatchewan and 150% from 2014 in Alberta. This is the highest growth rate for both provinces in at least 20 years. The greater sage-grouse population is endangered in Canada.

Protecting Public Resources: In April 2016, the BC Environmental Assessment Office announced its decision to terminate the proposed Raven Coal Mine on Vancouver Island. WCWC fought against the project proposal for six years due to the risks to local water quality, ecosystems, public safety, climate and local business sustainability.

Western Canada Wilderness Committee also reports that since 1980, its Public Education activities included distribution of over 188 editions of free educational newspapers (over 13 million copies) and 43 calendars, books, posters, videos, research reports and maps. The charity reports reaching over 100,000 people annually through its speaking events. Overall, through canvassing, educational publications, rallies, events and media activities, WCWC reports reaching over 12 million people annually.

Financial Review:

Western Canada Wilderness Committee is a medium-sized charity with total donations of $1.9m in F2016. Administrative costs are 13% of revenues and fundraising costs are 26% of donations. Per dollar donated to the charity, $0.62 goes towards its programs, which falls outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. The charity’s funding reserves of $430k can cover only 30% of annual program costs, indicating a funding need.

This charity report is an update that is currently being reviewed by Western Canada Wilderness Committee. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on June 1, 2017 by Katie Khodawandi.