Restrict raw log trade to preserve boreal forest, says Green Party

Introduce a whole log export tax, Green Party says... OTTAWA – The Green Party today called for immediate action to restrict the export of raw logs as part of a wider campaign to preserve the country’s endangered boreal forest. The party wants the federal government to renegotiate trade agreements and introduce a whole log export tax to discourage the export of raw logs and promote manufacturing in Canada. “We cut about a million hectares of forest a year,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “But we could do much more with much less if the value-added manufacturing was located here. We must improve our logging practices and extract more economic value from every tree cut. We must become a world leader in the sustainable management of this precious resource.” Ms. May said Canadians should recognize the growing threats to the boreal region, highlighted by this week’s letter signed by 1,500 scientists from more than 50 countries urging Canada to strengthen protection of the vast northern forest ecosystem. The scientists' letter points out that forests absorb and store carbon dioxide, playing a key role in the fight against climate change. "We are concerned that current conservation planning efforts are insufficient to sustain the ecological integrity of Canada's boreal region, one of the most intact ecosystems left in the world," the letter states. "Specifically, the amount of land in protected status within the Canadian Boreal, now at under 10 per cent, is inadequate and must be markedly increased." Ms. May said the federal government must do more to protect Canada’s forests, spearheading efforts to increase the area of land under protection and helping to develop a Genuine Forest Health Indicator that measures the state of the Canadian forest every 10 years, identifying changes in all forest values including those that directly or indirectly mitigate climate change. “Our forests face multiple threats,” she said. “Over-cutting, raw log exports, extreme weather events including floods, droughts, ice and wind storms that are on the rise due to climate change, and microbial diseases spread by exotic pests and natural pests, like the pine beetle, that are no longer naturally controlled by our climate. “It is time the federal government acted to protect this priceless resource against these threats.”