On behalf of Canada’s leading forest products companies and the 230,000 people we employ in hundreds of communities across the country, I am sending you an urgent letter requesting that the federal government give serious thought to adjusting the procedures and timing of its Caribou Recovery Strategy to achieve a more balanced and sustainable way forward for all.
We believe that the current process could jeopardize thousands of jobs and the well-being of hundreds of communities all the while not achieving caribou recovery goals.
In some provinces, we believe the current federally mandated process is resulting in a situation where incomplete and ineffective caribou range plans are being developed and may cause unintended harm. We are asking today that the federal government take a step back and reconsider the processes associated with the recovery strategy in order to ensure that the most current science and socio-economic impacts are taken into account.
Unless the current approach is altered, the positive outcomes we are all seeking for caribou will not be realized and a number of sustainable forestry operations will be put at risk, along with the well-paying jobs they support across rural and northern Canada.
As you know, our sector prides itself in the positive environmental benefits we realize every day. Indeed, the detailed forest management plans that our companies develop and implement at the provincial level are built to support biodiversity, and our harvesting practices are tailored to meet the unique realities of each forest area.
It is with this deep experience that we reach out to you today, on an urgent basis.
more detail at: http://www.fpac.ca/call-for-federal-government-to-rethink-caribou-protection-plans/