David Suzuki is a world-renowned scientist, broadcaster, activist, co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation and author of more than 30 books on ecology (written with files from boreal project manager Rachel Plotkin).
Canada is regarded as a country of spectacular nature, with magnificent forests. The boreal forest alone makes up 55 per cent of Canada’s land mass. In Ontario, 66 per cent of the land is made up of forests. The government wants you to think our forest management practices are beyond reproach. They aren’t.
New research confirms that industrial logging isn’t ecologically sustainable. Rather, it’s rapidly degrading forest habitats and threatening species.
A study by Brendan Mackey and colleagues, from Griffith University in Australia, looked at forestry in Ontario and Quebec and found, “The Canadian Government claims that its forests have been managed according to the principles of sustainable forest management for many years, yet this notion of sustainability is tied mainly to maximizing wood production and ensuring the regeneration of commercially desirable tree species following logging.”
In Ontario (where 20 per cent of Canada’s forests are found), the rotation age of forests — the age they reach before they’re logged — is usually 80 to 100 years, while the period between wildfires is 114 to 262 years.
Where can one learn about logging’s cumulative impacts? Not, it turns out, from the federal government. It uses carefully curated statistics to perpetuate Canada’s image as a sustainable forestry leader.
A coalition of national and regional conservation organizations, including the David Suzuki Foundation, wrote a report called “The State of the Forest in Canada: Seeing Through the Spin.” It points to the lack of information in Natural Resources Canada’s report on the negative impacts of logging infrastructure on forest regeneration, population declines of key iconic forest-dependent species and logging’s greenhouse gas emissions. It also highlights a failure to assess the alignment between logging practices and Indigenous rights.
Forests are critical for all life. They help regulate the planet’s climate, provide habitat, give sustenance to people, supply oxygen. Industrial development is putting all of that at risk, which puts us at risk.
It’s past time to put words into action and do better at protecting forests. Having honest conversations about the state of the forests is a good place to start.