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WORLDWIDE BIODIVERSITY/FOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS

Canada: Brazil of the North Still Applies

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

March 25, 1995

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

In the following article, "Canada's Future Forest Alliance"

reports that Canada continues to pursue unsustainable industrial

forest practices in much of its Western Provinces. This was

posted in econet's forest.canada conference.

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/** forest.canada: 367.0 **/

** Topic: Brazil of the North Still Applies **

** Written 6:16 PM Mar 25, 1995 by web:focs in cdp:forest.canada

**

Canada's Future Forest Alliance

P.O. Box 224, New Denver, B.C. V0G 1S0

Phone: (604) 358-2333

Fax: (604) 358-7950

For Immediate Release

March 24, 1995

McCrory Tells Europe "Brazil of the North" Still Applies to

Canadian Forest Practices

Colleen McCrory, organizer of Canada's Future Forest Alliance, is

once again telling Europe that Canada is the "Brazil of the

North". McCrory says reductions of harvest levels in some areas of

Canada are not coming from environmentally enlightened policies;

rather they are occurring in areas where the end of the wood

supply is already in sight. "Meanwhile," she stated, "Canadian

governments are repeating the problem in the fragile Boreal

forests of the north - allowing levels of harvesting that cannot

possibly be sustainable."

McCrory said the province claiming the most environmental reforms

is one of the worst contributors to the problem. "The BC forest

industry is so unsustainable that it's reaching out to consume

forests in Alaska, the Yukon, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan,

because there's not enough wood to feed the mills in BC," she

stated. "We know they are consuming close to capacity with what

they take in from BC Crown land, and from private land inside and

outside the province. That would be close to 90 million cubic

metres of wood a year - similar to the peak harvest in 1987.

They're not just depleting our province, they're contributing to

depletion all over western Canada."

McCrory said the federal government is contributing to the problem

by virtually giving away federal forest lands in the Yukon for $7

per truckload. "This same government has rubber-stamped

large-scale clearcutting as ecologically sound, while claiming to

offer the world a model in environmental protection," she noted.

"Some Canadian provinces still allow clearcuts up to 100 or 200

hectares".

McCrory said the British Columbia government has done some good

things for the environment. For instance, the level of forest

preservation in southern BC has been increased from about 2% to

somewhere between 6 and 8%. "However, this means approximately 93%

of the low- and mid-elevation forest was conceded to logging,"

McCrory explained. "Some of the new parks are large, but most are

too small to maintain large wild animals over the long term. Key

grizzly bear and caribou habitat was chopped out to make

concessions to the forest and mining industries. In one region it

was clearly proven that we could have protected the entirety of

the major park proposals without a net loss of forest industry

jobs, but the government didn't care. They sacrificed treasure

chests of biodiversity to suit the inflated demands of the logging

industry. Meanwhile, it was in the news that one logging company

in that region made newly $ 100 million dollars net profits in one

year alone."

"Now the same BC Cabinet ministers who refused to preserve more

than 6% of the low- and mid-elevation forest are claiming to be

concerned about global warming," says McCrory. "The pillage of

forests all over the world is known to be a substantial

contributor to global warming, but our politicians ignore the

consequences on the global community as they sanction clearcutting

of one of the largest tracts of forest left on the planet."

"Over the last years, support from the European community has

played a critical role in getting better forest practices in

Canada," says McCrory. "Once again environmentalists from Canada

are begging the European public to keep up the demand for

environmental reforms. Our governments must learn that the planet

is small and that people all over the world are holding them

responsible for the stewardship of a very important resource."

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Contact person: Colleen McCrory, Valhalla Society at 358- 2333

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You are encouraged to utilize this information for personal

campaign use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns and

forwarding. All efforts are made to provide accurate, timely

pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all

information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia Forest

Conservation Archives at URL=

http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html

Networked by:

Ecological Enterprises

Email (best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org

Phone->(608) 233-2194 || Fax->(608) 231-2312