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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Canada:
The Forest Crisis Moving Into the Boreal
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
July 1,
1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Following
is an article from Colleen Mccrory of Canada's Future
Forest
Alliance which illustrates that Canada's image of
sustainable
and ecological forest management is far from the
truth. Despite the fact that Canada possesses 10%
of the world's
forests,
they are generally falling victim to massive industrial
forest
exploitation, whose dependence upon clearcutting of old
growth
forests is clearly unsustainable. This
item was posted in
econet's
taiga.news conference.
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/**
taiga.news: 230.0 **/
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Topic: CANADA'S FOREST CRISIS **
**
Written 8:57 AM Jun 26, 1995 by nn:rogols in
cdp:taiga.news
**
CANADA:
THE FOREST CRISIS MOVING INTO THE BOREAL
/From
Taiga News no 14/
FOR FAR
TOO MANY YEARS, Canadian companies have been causing
widespread
forest destruction and telling the world that all is
well in
the woods. Until recently, Canada's image was one of the
perfect
government managing the forest is an ecologically
sustainable
way.
Nothing
could be further from the truth. In spite of a large
public
outcry, Canadians have been unsuccessful in bringing about
the
needed changes to protect our forests from destruction of
large
scale clerked logging. We are a nation with 10 per cent of
the
planet's forests, but our governments have worked with the
corporations
to allow industrial development on an unprecedented
scale.
In
addition to the existing crisis in Canada's temperate forests,
the
development and expansion of an industrial forest industry in
the
boreal region of Canada has created a whole new set of
problems.
Until recently, the boreal forest was not considered for
large scale
development. Because of a dwindling wood supply world
wide
and the large scale consumption pulp and paper wood products
and
sweetheart deals from Canadian governments, some of the
largest
developments in the world have occurred in Canada's boreal
region.
Over $10 billion worth of new pulp mills have been
constructed
across the western boreal. All of these mills have
gone
forward without environmental assessments on the forest,
wildlife,
birdlife. In addition, these mills have been built
without
any regard for indigenous people and their traditional
lands
and way of life. All of these pulp mill expansions have been
given
with the full consent of provincial and federal governments.
ROSY
PICTURE PAINTED
NGO's
and concerned individuals abroad are by now accustomed to
the
rosy picture of Canadian forest practices painted by Canada's
federal
and provincial governments. Government officials say
Canadian
forest practices are ecologically sound and sustainable;
that
there is no deforestation here, only perpetual forest
renewal;
and that governments are reducing the rate at which
forests
are logged.
Canada's
Federal government's Natural Resources Minister, Hon.
Anne
McLellan stated in April of 1994 that Ottawa will step up
overseas
publicity campaigns to counteract unfounded claims made
by
environmentalists about Canada's forest industry. She stated "I
am
exasperated and increasingly frustrated by the exaggerated and
unfounded
attacks on Canadian forest management practices."
(Edmonton
Journal 7494).
BIASED
CLEAR-CUT COMMITTEE
Due to
the European market based campaign by Greenpeace and other
environmental
groups, Canada has become increasingly concerned
about
its public image. As part of its
campaign to impress the
European
public, the Canadian government created a committee to
study
clearcutting. This federal committee report concluded that
"Clearcutting
is entirely appropriate from an ecological
perspective
for most forest types in Canada. Moreover,
clearcutting
is a safe and economically-sound harvesting method
that is
widely and successfully used throughout the world." The
committee
was extremely biased in it's approach, clearly ignoring
the widespread
damage done by clearcutting. Environmentalists
believe
that this report was commissioned so that Canadian
governments
and industry could defend clearcutting in their
European
campaigns.
Approximately
90% of all the logging in Canada is done by
clearcutting.
A June 1994 federal annual "State of Canada's
Forests"
report states that the forest area lost in the previous
five
years is 2.04 million hectares. This report also shows that
large
areas are failing to regenerate over what foresters consider
a
reasonable time: 4.3 million hectares
are still not growing
commercial
tree species a shocking 10 years after harvesting. The
study
says this represents less that 2% of Canada's total
commercial
forest. However, this category of unstocked land has
almost
doubled in the past 15 years. In other
words, of the
annual
area logged, 14% is permanently taken out of production
every
year.
Natural
Resources Minister Anne McLellan insists this is because
of
"problems of the past."
Various other spokespersons from
industry
and key government representatives, including Premier
Harcourt
of B.C., also have stated that forest mismanagement is in
the
past. Canadian governments continue to
whitewash the damage
done by
clearcut logging. Unregenerated forest
land and the
massive
loss of biodiversity across Canada is part of the damage
done by
clearcut logging.
Canadian
forest policies are not only causing large scale
destruction
for Canada, but worldwide as well. In 1990 the Food
and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
revealed that
Canada
has some of the lowest stumpage rates world wide. Stumpage
rates
have not increased substantially since 1990. Canada's
stumpage
rates are even lower than Sarawak's. Our government's low
stumpage
rates are forcing other countries to clearcut their
forests
to compete with us.
REDUCE
LOGGING - STOP CLEAR-CUTTING
Those
interested in sustainable forestry don't ask that the
cutting
of Canada's forests stop, we only ask that the rate of
cutting
be reduced to a level that is sustainable over the long
term to
allow for restoration of our depleted forests.
Clearcutting
must be stopped and replaced by less ecologically
damaging
methods such as selective logging. We
must also insist
that
Canada meet its stated goal of preserving important areas
across
the country, including an adequate and proportional amount
of old
growth in temperate and boreal forest ecosystems.
COLLEEN
MCCRORY, CANADA'S FUTURE FOREST ALLIANCE
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