Canada's Forests: Sustainable Management or Subsidized
Destruction?OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, July 21, 2000 (ENS) - Canada is a champion of sustainable forest management according to a government report released Wednesday. Environmental groups disagree.
Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale said the 10th annual report on the state of the country's forests showed Canada, one of the world's largest lumber exporters, is a world leader of the concept of sustainable forest management.
However, Greenpeace, which released a World Resources Institute (WRI) report on the state of the world's forsts in Ottawa on Wednesday, said the country is subsidizing the destruction of its ancient forests to the tune of US$2 billion a year.
The WRI is a Washington, DC based center for research that advocates environmentally sound and sustainable development.
Canada is home to a quarter of the world's remaining temperate rainforest. The country accounts for 19 percent of the world's lumber market.
"We are a world leader in developing innovative and practical approaches to issues the forest sector faces," said Goodale.
"To remain at the forefront, we must be proactive in addressing new global realities such as ballooning population growth, stronger competition in the international forest products marketplace, and an increasing desire for certified products from sustainably managed forests," the minister said.
The report said the amount of Canadian forest land being certified as sustainably managed is increasing much faster than the government expected.
But Greenpeace-Canada executive director Peter Tabuns told reporters that instead of protecting its temperate rainforest, Canada is subsidizing its destruction with funding and tax breaks to promote industrial logging.
The group says an example of such a subsidy is the rate of stumpage logging companies pay to the government for each tree they cut on publicly owned land.
Greenpeace says companies like International Forest Products (Interfor), in the Canadian province of British Columbia, pay far lower stumpage rates than market value. In some cases they pay less than $1 per cubic metre of cedar they log, although cedar fetches the highest price of all coastal timber in the international marketplace, the organization points out.
Interfor officials were unable to comment on Greenpeace's criticisms this week.
The WRI report, "Perverse Habits: The G8 and Subsidies that Harm Forests and Economies," claims Canada leads the Group of Eight Nations (G8) in destructive subsidies.
The G8 takes in Japan, France, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada and Russia. The annual G8 Summit opened today in Okinawa, Japan.
The report defines perverse subsidies as those which cause forest loss or degradation, but have no lasting positive impact on economic development. Local communities and society in general bear the costs of these subsidies while companies reap the benefits, WRI claims.
"The structure of these subsidies is so complex and so politically charged that the public does not often appreciate their scale or call for their removal," said Dr. Nigel Sizer, principal author of the report. "The preliminary results of our research makes it clear that this is a serious problem and should be a priority for concerted action by the G8."
WRI estimates that the U.S. government lost over US$2 billion from 1992 to 1997 on sales of timber from national forests. It accuses Japan of subsidizing the processing of timber imported from the frontier forests of Siberia, Canada and Southeast Asia, adding that some of this timber is probably cut illegally.
It claims that through the French Development Agency, France spent about US$500 million from 1989 to 1999 building roads and other infrastructure in Central Africa that benefited logging companies.
The report recommends that the G8 establish an independent external commission to investigate government subsidies that promote forest destruction. It calls on Canada, the U.S., France and Japan to commit to eliminating such subsidies by 2005.
Greenpeace wants the G8 to adopt a green procurement policy, which means asking only for certified timber products, such as those labeled by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Greenpeace believes G8 governments are subsidizing rainforest destruction. (Photo by David Sims, courtesy Greenpeace)
The FSC is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization founded by representatives from environmental and conservation groups, the timber industry, the forestry profession, indigenous peoples' organizations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organizations from 25 countries.
It promotes responsible forest management by accrediting certifiers who evaluate the practices of timber companies based on a set of sustainable development criteria. Timber from certified companies bears the FSC logo in the marketplace.