Slashing our sovereignty

Re: Battle for the Boreal Forest, by Peter Kuitenbrouwer, Dec 5

Canada has a total of 397 million hectares of various categories of forested land. Of this huge forest approximately 188 million ha ( 47 per cent) is actively managed for timber. We harvest and regenerate about one million ha per year ( 0.5 per cent of the 188 million).

Of the 188 million ha under active management, 163 million are publicly owned and managed under strict provincial regulation. An additional five million is in private ownership (industry, pension funds, investors and institutions). These 168 million ha of forest are in large management units. 161 million (96 per cent) have been certified under one or more of the three forest certification systems used in Canada.

These are: The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) 80 million ha ( 45 per cent), Forest Stewardship Council ( FSC) 56 million ha ( 32 per cent) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) 41 million ha (23 per cent). Because of several double certification, the total adds up to more than 161 million ha.

Canada also has 450,000 private woodlots averaging 40 ha and covering about 20 million ha. Many of these woodlots are not managed for timber production. Few are certified.

The FSC has recently incorporated Resolution 65, sponsored by Greenpeace, into its requirements. This requires that 85 per cent of all “intact forest landscapes” (with no roads and human development) shall be reserved from timber management. This changes the FSC from being a forest certification body into a regulatory agency. Very large areas of Canada’s vast forest now under management licence have not yet been developed. FSC would forbid all management of these lands.

What forest will be reserved and held in conservation status and what can be licensed for timber management is a decision on forest land use policy. Under the Canadian Constitution it is our provincial and territorial governments, acting on behalf of the people, that have responsibility and authority over land use policy on publicly owned forest land. Certification bodies and organizations like Greenpeace have no authority to make these pronouncements. Governments that allow their authority to be usurped by other organizations — whether non- governmental organizations or private-sector organizations — abdicate their responsibilities. I think we all prefer a country of laws and regulations established through our democratic legislative procedures.

Tony Rotherham, Knowlton, Que.