LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

In this article Larry Innes states “our rate of deforestation is among the highest in the world”. This is absolutely untrue and in fact the situation is in the total reverse - Canada is a world leader in maintaining its forest condition. Canada retains more original forest area (91%) than any other country in the world (World Resources Institute Data Tables, 2000-2001). Canada’s rate of deforestation is zero and has been for over two decades (FAO State of the World’s Forests report issued in March 2007). Canada has more protected forest than any other country - over 40 million hectares (A Global Overview of Forest Conservation, WCMC, UNEP, CIFOR, 1997).

In the opening sentence he states that “we also have an unprecedented opportunity to become global leaders through wise stewardship of our boreal forest.” Canada is the global leader in wise stewardship of forests. Not only have we conserved more of our original forests, protected more of our forests than any other country, and have no deforestation, but Canada is home to 40% of the world’s third party certified forests (FSC, CSA, SFI). Canada has three times more certified forest in the boreal than any other country has certified in total. The Canadian forest industry has reduced its GHG emissions by 44% since 1990, far exceeding the Kyoto target. Currently 18% of global GHG emissions come from deforestation, with half of global deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia (The Economics of Climate Change, Nicholas Ster, 2006). Other organizations such as the Global Canopy Program are advocating that other nations follow in adopting sustainable forestry, “there is a pressing need... to supply sustainably managed timber meeting the highest certification standards” (Forests First in the Fight Against Climate Change, June 2007). We are the leader that others are following.

Canada has done an exceptional job ensuring that Canada’s forests are regenerated promptly and successfully. All Canadians can be proud that we are world leaders in sustainable forest management - no one does better.

Dave Kmet, RPF, RPFT, Director of Forestry, Alberta Forest Products Association

I like the magazine. As a member of CIF I am glad to recieve it. I think the article on Land Use Planning in the August 07 issue should have been reviewed with a more critical eye.
There are two comments that in my opinion are nonsense .There is a statement that there are 67 million tonnes of carbon in the trees of the Boreal Forest. The Boreal Forest covers 340 million ha. Granted that not all of it is closed canopy forest, but that averages out to 0.2 tonnes of carbon per ha. Seems to me this is a ridiculously low figure.There is a statement that Canada’s rate of deforestation is among the highest in the world. 

Deforestation has a meaning. It does not mean whatever we would like it to mean. ‘Alice and the Queen’ should not write for your magazine. Deforestation is the more or less permanent removal of trees and the conversion of the land to some other use. Like agriculture or a parking lot. I say more or less permanent because ‘permanent’ like ‘never’ is a long time.

Canada is not deforesting on any measurable scale. Au contraire - the area of forest in Canada is probably increasing slightly as marginal and sub-marginal agricultural lands go out of agricultural use and go back under forest cover through natural regeneration or planting. This is not well documented because I do not think our land use inventory programs are designed to pick up this data on a consistent basis.

And then having weakened the credibility of all statistics in the article we come to the famous ‘more than 1500 leading scientists’ quote. I don’t think I believe that figure either. Please don’t print puffs for interest groups. It will inevitably weaken your reputation with the forest practioners who are the main audience for the magazine. Stick to technical articles and news on silviculture. 

Tony Rotherham, RPF (BC and Ont)

We stated in our August 2007 Canadian Silviculture article that “our rate of deforestation is the highest in the world”. This is incorrect. On a national scale, Canada’s rate of deforestation is low, relative to other countries. According to the CCFM, the most recent estimate of total deforestation across all sectors (including forestry, energy, and agriculture) from 1990 to 1998 in Canada was 54,700 to 80,050 hectares a year, or between 0.01% and 0.02% of our forest land base. 

However, this national statistic does not reflect the on-the-ground reality of deforestation in certain regions. For example, forest cover in the Alberta-Pacific Forest Management Agreement Area decreased by 3% over the past several decades, largely as a consequence of increases in oil and gas activities within the tenure. Reports prepared for the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy have predicted that deforestation within the AlPac tenure will amount to 380,000 hectares or 7% of the total land base as new oil sands developments come online.

By any measure, this is significant. If Alberta-Pacific - a leading member of the Boreal Leadership Council operating an FSC-certified tenure - is unable to maintain forest cover because of land use decisions and resource allocations relating to other sectors, we clearly need to reform our land use regime in order to achieve our collective goals.

We would also like to correct a typo which appeared in the article. The amount of carbon estimated to be contained in Canada’s boreal forest should have been expressed in billions of tonnes, not millions of tonnes.

Larry Innes, Executive Director, Canadian Boreal Initiative

Please accept this apology to readers for overlooking a “deforestation” statement that insults both the Canadian forest sector and the silviculture industry. The industry does not need gratuitous invalidation added to its challenges.

 Dirk Brinkman, Editor