After the Nestlé announcement last week, the good news just keeps on coming.
Our Canadian colleagues are thrilled about a new, far-reaching agreement between campaign groups and logging companies that should see vast areas of the country’s boreal forest protected.
After 7 years of campaigning to save the boreal forest, Greenpeace was pretty thrilled to announce a win.
The biggest, most ambitious forest conservation deal ever was announced: the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. After more than seven years of hard-fought campaigning to end the ongoing destruction of Canada’s boreal forest, Greenpeace and eight other non-government organisations have agreed to a truce with the logging industry: we will suspend the battle for the boreal.
In return, 21 of the biggest logging industry players from the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) have agreed to an immediate moratorium on logging in nearly 29 million hectares of forest that covers virtually all the critical habitat for the threatened woodland caribou.
The long-term agreement includes a commitment from the parties to work over the next three years to undertake conservation planning for the entire area covered by the agreement. This unusual alliance of logging companies and environmental groups will work together to ensure long-term protection within 72 million hectares of forest – an area twice the size of Germany – that stretches right across Canada.
Back home in our own region, the forests still need our help.
The Asia–Pacific region is said to have the highest annual deforestation rate in the world. Two of our closest neighbours, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, are suffering rampant and illegal logging for palm oil, paper and timber products that Australians buy every day.
Australia currently imports approximately $840 million worth of illegal timber from these forests and there are currently no restrictions on the importation of illegal or suspect timber.
You can take action by emailing the Rudd Government and asking them to stick to their election promise to ban illegal timber imports.
Here are some photos of Canada’s great boreal forests.
