Forest Caucus Report

A Newsletter of the Canadian Environmental Network Forest Caucus

Managing Canada’s Boreal Forests (FSC Side event)
Chris Henschel, CPAWS-Wildlands League

The final draft of the National Boreal Standard was released by the Forest Stewardship Council for public consultation during their side event entitled “Managing Canada’s Boreal Forests”. The draft standard is the culmination of nearly two years of intensive work to develop a consensus across FSC’s four chambers on how to define better boreal forestry.

Martin von Mirbach (Sierra Club of Canada and former FSC board member) discussed the standards development process. Peggy Smith (Lakehead University and former FSC board member) described the accomplishments of the standard from an Aboriginal perspective. Harvey Mead (Union Québécoise pour la Conservation de la Nature) praised elements of the standard including the treatment of High Conservation Value Forests and Jean-Pierre Martel (Forest Products Association of Canada) discussed the importance of the standards being practical and achievable for FPAC members. Marie-Anick Liboiron of the Lower St-Lawrence Model Forest welcomed the standard but stressed the need for it to be adapted for small woodlot owners. Forestry consultant Keith Moore and Matthew Wenban-Smith of FSC International spoke to the international relevance of the standard. Mr. von Mirbach drew particular attention to the long list of individuals who contributed in developing the standard.

The Canadian environmental community has been deeply engaged in this process beginning with an initial workshop organized by the CEN and CPAWS-Wildlands League in May of 2002. Many organizations and individuals have worked hard to ensure that the standard sets a high bar of environmental performance. The draft standard goes a long way to achieving the objectives of the environmental community to define an approach that significantly improves forestry and protects important forest areas. The standard also requires greater recognition and respect for Aboriginal and treaty rights, and expresses a vision of how this can be operationalized by forest companies.

Some examples of the standard’s performance requirements are:

· Maximum contributions by applicants to complete the network of representative protected areas.

• Retention of 10-50% of trees during clearcutting to provide habitat structure in the regenerating forest.
• Maintenance of natural levels of old growth forests
• Maintenance of large core habitat for area sensitive species
• Continuous reduction in biocide use.
• Agreements from each affected Indigenous communities verifying that their concerns and interests are being clearly incorporated
• Demonstration that Indigenous resources are not diminished or threatened.

NGOs including Alberta Wilderness Association, CPAWS-Wildlands League, CPAWS-Edmonton, Sierra Club of Canada, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund Canada and the Yukon Conservation Society are leading the effort to make a few remaining improvements to the standard.

FSC will finalize the standard by the end of this year after a National Forum of stakeholders, regions, and Aboriginal Peoples to discuss the standard and make any final changes.