14 DAY TRIAL // The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement was endorsed just recently, as a result of an on-going collaboration between Canada's Forest Industry and various environmental groups.
More precisely, 21 companies in the business of trading wood and 9 green organizations have decided that it is high time to develop wiser ways of exploiting the forests in this part of the world.
Once this agreement becomes fully operational – and we expect this to happen quite soon – about 72 million hectares of public forests will fall under the law's protection, which means that the natural ecosystems here will be managed according to the highest of environmental standards.
Therefore, although deforestation campaigns will continue to take place so as to provide wood for the nearby mills, the animal species living in these forests will not be faced with having their natural habitats destroyed.
ENN reports that Avrim Lazar, the president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, spoke about this collaboration, as follows: “Together we have identified a more intelligent, productive way to manage economic and environmental challenges in the Boreal that will reassure global buyers of our products' sustainability.”
He also added that “It's gratifying to see nearly a decade of industry transformation and hard work greening our operations, is culminating in a process that will set a forestry standard that will be the envy of the world.”
The same source informs us that, under this agreement, 29 million hectares of the Canadian Boreal Forest will remain strictly off limits for all commercial activities.
The main drive behind this decision is to ensure the protection of the woodland caribou, which presently is an endangered species.
Given the fact that the Canadian Boreal Forest covers about 60% of this country's entire surface, and is extremely diverse in terms of fauna and flora, we can only salute the idea of pushing for sustainable forestry when it comes to exploiting this natural resource.