Canadian forestry firms agree to curb boreal forest logging

Michel Comte Yahoo News 18 May 10;

OTTAWA (AFP) – Forestry companies announced Tuesday a pact with environmentalists to stop logging huge swathes of Canada's boreal forest and protect caribou herds in exchange for suspending protests.

Twenty-one members of the Forest Products Association of Canada, who manage two-thirds of Canada's forests, agreed to suspend new logging on nearly 29 million hectares of the boreal forest.

They also will adopt strict new environmentally-sensitive forestry practices in an area twice the size of Germany, or 72 million hectares, and develop conservation plans for endangered species in this region, including caribou.

Nine environmental groups led by Canopy, ForestEthics and Greenpeace, for their part, will end a decades-long "Do Not Buy" campaign for wood products from the 1,000-kilometer-wide (620-mile-wide) belt across Canada's north.

"We're thrilled that this effort has led to the largest commercial forest conservation plan in history, which could not have happened without both sides looking beyond their differences," said Steve Kallick of the Pew Environment Group.

The 1.3-billion-acre Canadian boreal forest -- made up of mostly spruce, fir, pine, birch, poplar and cottonwood trees -- is one of the largest intact ecosystems remaining in the world.

Its valleys, wetlands, lakes and tundra are home to wolves, bears, and the largest caribou herds in the world, as well as a nesting ground for more than 300 bird species.

Its trees and peat moss also store an estimated 200 billion tonnes of CO2.

"It is one of the last truly vast wilderness spaces that we have left on the planet and we've been fighting this environmental fight for many years," said Greenpeace's Richard Brooks, spokesman for participating environmental groups.

"This is our best chance to save woodland caribou, permanently protect vast areas of the boreal forest and put in place sustainable forestry practices," he said.

"It really is a truce after many years of fighting each other," he added.

Included in the pact are forestry giants AbitibiBowater, Canfor, Kruger, West Fraser Timber and Weyerhaeuser.

"This is a business strategy for us," Avrim Lazar, president of Forest Products Association of Canada, told reporters. "We know where the future is and the marketplace is going to reward the environmental progressives."

The deal will not interrupt fiber supplies to mills, worth billions of dollars annually, the two groups told a press conference.

Talks with provincial governments, local communities and aboriginal groups across Canada are still being held to solicit their backing. Implementation of the agreement is expected to take three years.

Canadian loggers, green groups to protect forests
David Ljunggren, PlanetArk 19 May 10;

Most of Canada's largest forestry companies announced a groundbreaking deal with environmental groups on Tuesday that will restrict logging in the country's vast northern forests.

The agreement covers 170 million acres (690,000 square km) -- an area nearly twice the size of Germany -- and ends years of battles over logging in Canada's massive boreal forest, which environmentalists say helps fight global warming by absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide.

The forestry companies will stop all logging immediately on 75 million acres to protect woodland caribou herds under pressure from development. The two sides will then spend three years working out which restrictions to impose on logging in the remaining 95 million acres.

In return, as the agreement comes into force, the green groups will end international "Do not buy" campaigns against Canadian lumber. The deal took two years to negotiate.

"This is the way everyone hoped the world could work. Instead of fighting and having polarized discussions ... the way of succeeding tomorrow is going to be through constructive good faith engagement," said Avrim Lazar, chief executive of the Forest Products Association of Canada.

The U.S.-based Pew Environment Group, which brokered the deal, said it was the largest commercial forest conservation agreement ever concluded.

Lazar, saying the forestry industry had to modernize and become greener to thrive and win new markets, described the agreement as a business strategy.

"We know where the future is ... we're doing this not just because we love the boreal," he told a news conference.

The deal includes forests in seven of the country's 10 provinces. A similar agreement was reached four years ago to end a dispute over logging in the rainforest on Canada's Pacific Coast.

"It really is a truce, after many years of fighting each other ... This is our best and last chance to save woodland caribou in the boreal forest," said Richard Brooks of Greenpeace Canada.

The boreal forest region, which stretches across much of Canada, consists mostly of coniferous trees such as spruce, fir and pine, as well as large areas of lakes, rivers and wetlands.

In all it covers an area of 1.37 billion acres (5.7 million square km), of which 766 million acres are forested, with remaining regions made up of peat lands and treeless areas.

The deal won praise from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, whose members have been hit hard by the slump in the forestry industry.

"It is time now to make environmental leadership a value-added advantage for Canadian forest products," union President Dave Coles said in a statement.

The green groups include Greenpeace, Canopy, the Nature Conservancy, ForestEthics, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pew Environment Group.

Among the 20 firms involved are: Canfor Corp, Tembec, Tolko Industries, West Fraser Timber, Weyerhaeuser, Mercer International, Kruger Inc, AbitibiBowater and NewPage Corp.

(Additional reporting by Allan Dowd in Vancouver; editing by Rob Wilson)