Saving Canada's Green Crown
MP3 Radio[much of the information below comes from the Canadian Boreal Initiative website]
Spanning from Newfoundland to the Yukon Territories, the boreal forest is Canada’s great green crown, encompassing nearly 6 million square kilometers making it the country’s largest ecosystem covering 58% of the land. It constitutes more than 90 percent of the country’s remaining large intact forestlands and 25% of the world’s remaining frontier forests. As if this list of superlatives wasn’t enough, consider these additional statistics. Thirty percent of this vast region is covered by wetlands, consisting of bogs, fens, marshes, an estimated 1.5 million lakes, and some of the country’s largest river systems. Not surprisingly, the boreal forests provide more than 30% of the continent’s population of birds. More than one billion birds migrate north to breed after wintering in warmer climates. Just a few kilometres of mixed boreal forest may support 600 breeding pairs of migratory songbirds. This rugged landscape is also home to some of the world’s largest remaining populations of woodland caribou, wolves and bears. It is truly the stuff of mythology. Indeed, the idea of Canada as being a vast northern frontier owes a great deal of its persistence to the enduring presence of the boreal forest.
But this myth, so fundamental to Canadian identity, may soon be relegated to a cultural scrapheap as the winds of change sweep through the stands leaving them increasingly fragmented and threatened. About one-half of Canada’s annual wood harvest comes from the boreal forest region. Mining operations continue to increase and expand, bringing with them more roads and development. Land use planning processes underway now in almost every province and territory will determine the fate of much of this irreplaceable natural treasure within the next three to five years. All this against the backdrop of less than 10 percent of Canada’s boreal region being strictly protected from development and with there being no consistent application of sustainable resource development practices.
In response to this growing crisis, a highly unlikely alliance has emerged, united in recognition that all who depend on the forest must come together to plan for its future. They have joined together in a groundbreaking partnership to promote the conservation and sustainable use of Canada’s boreal region.
The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, released on December 1, 2003, was developed in concert with leading conservation organizations, resource companies and First Nations. Convened by the Canadian Boreal Initiative, this group of leaders now forms the Boreal Leadership Council, also announced on December 1, 2003.
As signatories to the Framework, members of the Council are committed to a national vision and agree to take action in their own spheres of activity. The national vision articulated in the Framework calls for the establishment of a network of large interconnected protected areas covering about half of the country’s boreal region, which includes the boreal forest, the Aspen Parkland and the Taiga, and the use of leading-edge sustainable development practices in remaining areas.
The Canadian Boreal Initiative is the convenor and secretariat of the Boreal Leadership Council. Over the coming months, the CBI will be working with Council members to expand Framework endorsement in a variety of sectors, generate on-the-ground examples of the Framework principles in action, and create opportunities for governments to become engaged and active participants. The CBI has also commissioned science-based research to refine the approaches, in particular the necessary levels of protection, and activities that will help elaborate and implement this vision.
Instituting and maintaining leading-edge sustainability practices among the resource sectors depends a great deal on consumer demand. If there isn’t a sufficient market for products produced in more sustainable ways, then company shareholders will direct management to focus their attention on more profitable endeavours. So it is an exciting development when a large retail outlet such as Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) commits to purchase sustainably produced paper products from a forest company such as Domtar. But how is MEC to know whether or not Domtar is telling the truth concerning its forest practices? Enter the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which provides independent third-party audits and certification based on sound ecological and social justice principles, and the World Wildlife Fund(WWF), a highly respected environmental organization which endorses FSC’s program.
No doubt MEC’s commitment is good news to Domtar and WWF; however, many more purchasers of paper and wood products must make the same kind of decision to create a large enough demand for sustainably produced forest products. If this doesn’t happen, or fast enough, the initiative will die. This is where you and I come in. By supporting businesses such as MEC we send a powerful signal to the marketplace that this is the direction we want things to go.
Canada’s boreal landscape is a vast ecological treasure. In Canada we have an opportunity to do something no other country has done.
We can set an example for the world by conserving our boreal region through an interconnected network of large-scale protected areas and conservation lands; leading-edge sustainable development practices on the remainder of the landscape; and local community and First Nations engagement on land management decisions.
For more information:
Mountain Equipment Coop: www.mec.ca
Domtar: www.domtar.com
World Wildlife Fund Canada: www.wwf.ca
Forest Stewardship Council: www.fsc.org
Canadian Boreal Initiative: www.borealcanada.ca
As consumers, it is important for us to stop using virgin paper products (coming from ancient &/or boreal forests) and start using recycled ones only. Kleercut is a Greenpeace campaign aimed at Kimberley-Clark (makers of Kleenex) & other companies. They are destroying our Canadian forests at a fast pace.
It takes 90 years to grow ONE box of Kleenex! Think about it before you reach for your next box of tissues.
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