Glancing at a photo of this animal, one might wonder what a polar bear is doing in the depths of a temperate forest. In fact, it is a Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei), a subspecies of the American black bear that lives almost exclusively in the Great Bear Rainforest, located in British Columbia, Canada.

The Kermode bear, whose white coat is the result of a recessive allele that is very common in the population, is also known as the "spirit bear" precisely because of its colouring, and holds great spiritual and mythological significance for the native peoples who have shared the forest with these animals for centuries. This unique and pristine area, covering around three million hectares and roughly the size of Belgium, is one of the largest temperate rainforests in the world and is at last safe.

After twenty years of demands and struggle, the First Nations (the indigenous peoples of present-day Canada), the government, forestry companies and environmental organisations have reached an agreement: the Great Bear Rainforest has been declared protected, and logging is now prohibited across 85 per cent of the forest. The agreement, announced by the government of the Canadian province of British Columbia together with First Nations governments, was also reached with the support of the environmental organisations Greenpeace, Forest Ethics and Sierra Club British Columbia.

This is a historic victory: fewer than twenty years ago, more than 95 per cent of the Great Bear Rainforest was unprotected and chainsaws were felling dozens of ancient trees. Protecting the forest is also essential for countering the effects of climate change and will prevent approximately 640,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year.

"We have finally achieved a system of science-based forest management that recognises the importance of protecting ancient forests," said Nicolas Mainville, an activist with Greenpeace Canada.

Those peculiar cream-coated bears, which were never hunted by native peoples for spiritual reasons, will be able to continue roaming like spirits among the trees for many centuries to come.