The provincial government in Canada’s eastern maritime province of New Brunswick has issued a new and controversial forestry plan.
Shaded area Province of new Brunswick- at 73,000 sqkm, almost as big as Ireland (84,000) CLICK to ENLARGE
Premier David Alward and Natural Resources Minister Paul Robichaud, unveiled the long-awaited strategy which increases the amount of Crown-owned land available to pulp and forestry companies.
The Alward government released a 10-year forestry plan in 2012, but the industry has long been lobbying for guaranteed long-term access to Crown land.
“It’s about putting more boots in the woods and the mills,” said Alward, who added it will create hundreds of new forestry and construction jobs with additional industry capital investments.
Protected forest area in the province will be reduced from 30% to
23%.
“It’s an abject fail. It’s not sustainable. It’s a joke “ G Forbes
Green Party Leader David Coon said the decision of the Alward government to permit 21% more clearcutting on Crown land this year will be ruinous for both rural communities and wildlife. “This corporate forest plan sells rural New Brunswick and our environment down the river”, he said.
Graham Forbes, a forestry professor at the University of New Brunswick, said he was shocked at the announcement. “The reduction of the amount of protected land to 23 per cent is not what we could call sustainable forest management.”
He added, “It’s an abject fail. It’s not sustainable. It’s a joke.”
Roberta Clowater, the executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in New Brunswick, called the new policy “regressive.”
“It’s really important that the people of New Brunswick understand that the government is taking away more than a quarter of the amount of our public land that used to be specially managed to conserve wildlife and rivers and fish,” said Clowater. “And they’re basically giving it over to increased logging and much more clear-cutting.”
Government maintains the increased wood volume can be achieved without increasing the proportion of clear cutting taking place. Over the next 10 years, the government says the reliance on clear cutting will be reduced with more wood being harvested through commercial thinning.
“This is a really regressive plan,” said Clowater. “New Brunswickers need to understand this is really serious change,” said Clowater. ” I …don’t believe the forest eco-system is going to be able to sustain this amount of pressure on public land.”
Clowater also noted the increase in the harvest from tree plantations that is projected over time.
“Certainly, that increase is coming at a cost of less area that is going to be specially managed to conserve wildlife habitat for species that don’t do well in plantations, which are many,” she said.
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