World’s largest conservation agreement signed
Today nine leading environmental organizations and funders together with the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) unveiled one of the largest forest conservation agreements in the world. Covering more than 72 million hectares of forest, an area larger than France, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement is a roadmap to deliver vast new protected areas, protection for threatened woodland caribou, better forestry and a healthier, greener forest industry.
Congratulations to Tides Canada projects and partners: ForestEthics and Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative), Canadian Boreal Initiative, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy, Ivey Foundation, and Pew Environment Group’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign for this historic victory. We applaud the forestry companies who participated in this agreement for their commitment to a healthy future for the Boreal Forest.
Nearly all of the prime caribou habitat in this area — approximately 30 million hectares — will be off limits to road building, logging and other forestry operations. In return Canopy, Greenpeace and ForestEthics will suspend all of their divestment and “do not buy” campaigns designed to convince large purchasers to stop buying from suppliers who harvest in Canada’s Boreal Forest, and to deter investments in forestry operations in the region.
Like the Great Bear Rainforest, Canada’s Boreal Forest is critical to the health of our communities, environment, and climate. It filters our air and water, provides habitat to millions of songbirds and species at risk like woodland caribou, and absorbs and sequesters millions of tonnes of carbon. Until this agreement, the Boreal Forest has been logged at a rate equivalent to two acres a minute, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Read the press release:
Canadian Forest Industry and Environmental Groups Sign World’s Largest Conservation Agreement Applying to Area Twice the Size of Germany
Tuesday, May 18, 2010, Toronto/Montreal, Canada
Learn more about the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement.
Straightforward and well written, thank you for the info