|
|
|
|
|
News and Events News Release For immediate release: August 22, 2007 New Brunswick Environmental Groups Respond to Self-Sufficiency Recommendations - Request Province Not Approve Export Permits for Unprocessed Crown Wood and Stop Extra Cutting in Stream Buffers and Habitats August 22, 2007, Fredericton, NB - In light of disturbing recommendations from the Self-Sufficiency Task Force to drastically increase the wood supply from Crown land, along with recent mill closures, eighteen Crown Lands Network groups are requesting that the New Brunswick government not approve export permits for unprocessed Crown wood, and halt extra cutting they have already approved in stream buffers and deer wintering areas. Jean Arnold, Executive Director of Falls Brook Centre, said, “We cannot let the current challenges in the forestry industry force us to increase the wood supply going to companies that don’t provide us with the most jobs per volume of wood harvested. We should instead increase the value of our forests for local economic development in non-timber sectors, such as tourism, outfitting, and maple syrup production, and also manufacturing sectors such as furniture, flooring and cabinets.” David Coon, Policy Director for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, stated, “Dramatic changes in the forestry industry call for dramatic changes in the way industry has been permitted to exploit the public forest. Clearly, we need to implement the recommendation of the Select Committee on Wood Supply that wood allocations be tied to local communities when mills close. Once public forest resources are dedicated to provide local economic benefits to forest-dependent communities, the Province must work with those communities to support a development strategy that will provide optimal benefits to local families and businesses." “Given current low prices for wood, a significant amount of the wood on Crown land currently has more value standing in the forest - providing clean drinking water and rivers, cleaning our air, moderating climate change, and providing habitat for wildlife – than it does as a commodity product,” said Roberta Clowater, Executive Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, New Brunswick chapter. “As a member of the Crown Lands Network, CPAWS New Brunswick is requesting that the provincial government increase forest habitat conservation measures, and discontinue the extra harvesting in stream buffers and deer habitats that it approved last year.” In the spring of 2007, the Self-Sufficiency Task Force recommended that the province should increase the wood supply from Crown lands by 25% by 2026, and decrease the amount of areas identified for conservation objectives from 30% to 20% of Crown land. The Crown Lands Network member groups are asking that the government reject those recommendations, and move ahead with Crown lands management that keeps our options open for a wide range of sustainable economic uses of our forest – both timber and non-timber, both ecological and renewable resource- based. -30- For more information, please contact: (English) Roberta Clowater Chair of the Crown Lands Network Steering Committee; c/o Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, NB Chapter – phone: 506-452-9902; email: cpawsnb@nb.sympatico.ca (English) Jean Arnold Falls Brook Centre – phone 506-375-8143 (English) David Coon, Conservation Council of New Brunswick – phone 506-458-8747
(French) Beth McLaughlin CLN Steering Committee Member; c/o SOS – Eau Water Sankwan – phone: 506-854-6377; email: aucoeur@nbnet.nb.ca
The Crown Lands Network is a collaboration of New Brunswick organizations who are interested in the sustainable management and conservation of our province’s Crown lands. The network shares information and coordinates activities on forest management and conservation issues of province-wide interest. For more information on the Network and our activities, please visit the web site http://www.forestsfornb.org/index_e.htm
Backgrounder: Crown Lands Network Statement of Concern Self-Sufficiency Requires Forest Conservation and Local Processing of Wood Products The New Brunswick government has set a goal to make our province self-sufficient by 2026. Members of the Crown Lands Network are interested in providing constructive input for the government’s proposed self-sufficiency agenda as it relates to the management of our public lands. Members of the Crown Lands Network are concerned that recommendations regarding forest management that were made by the Self-Sufficiency Task Force will not help us achieve self-sufficiency. These recommendations may actually run counter to our province achieving self-sufficiency, while having the added effect of reducing the quality of life for residents of New Brunswick and limiting forest-based economic opportunities in the short and medium term. In order for the province to achieve self-sufficiency, we believe that the province must abandon the current cut-and-export model of forest management. Local processing of wood products and conservation of the forest should be the central feature of forest management on Crown lands. Self-sufficiency requires local processing of Crown wood, to the highest extent of value-added possible: For our province to be truly self-sufficient, we need to make optimal use of our public natural resources. This means making sure that any wood that is removed from our public forests is processed in our province. The province needs to establish a value-added wood processing chain that produces a wide range of final wood products here, to serve New Brunswick and export markets. The provincial government should establish a regulatory environment in which this high level of value-adding is required for anyone harvesting Crown wood. Government should also invest in the research and innovation needed to expand the value-added portion of the economy. A corresponding stumpage rate evaluation is also important to self-sufficiency, to make sure the public receives a high return on the wood that is removed from Crown forests. In the short-term, the provincial government should not issue export permits for Crown wood to companies that shut down or close their mills. This may require changing the allocation of Crown wood within the province. It would bring more value to New Brunswickers to leave the wood standing in the forest, until such time as it can be processed and value-added in our province. Self-sufficiency requires conserving the natural values and ecological services supplied by our forest: If we do not make a concerted effort to conserve clean rivers, well-functioning wetlands and healthy natural forests, we will likely see a degradation of the ecosystem services they provide. This is especially true if industrial activity increases, as is proposed by the Self-Sufficiency Task Force. Without these ecosystem services, we would need to spend a substantial amount of money to replace their functions - purifying water and air, digging deeper wells, preventing soil erosion, protecting communities from floods, increasing air conditioning, and taking extraordinary measures to keep wildlife populations alive in our province. Moving forward with strong biodiversity conservation policies for Crown forest management is extremely important. This should include enhanced efforts to establish protected areas, conserve old forests, wetlands and waterways, and maintain sufficient habitat for wildlife populations to flourish. In the short-term, we request that DNR stop the extra cutting currently allowed in deer yards and stream buffers. This extra cutting was announced by the Province in February 2006 as a coping strategy to protect jobs in the forestry sector. This measure does not appear to have worked, as mills continue to close. We believe the extra cutting is negatively impacting wildlife habitat and water quality. Therefore, we believe that the wood in deer yards and stream buffers is currently more valuable standing where it is, supporting the existing non-timber forest economies of tourism, angling, and hunting, than in the low-value wood market. Self-sufficiency requires keeping our options open for a wide range of sustainable economic uses of our forest – both timber and non-timber, both ecological and renewable resource- based. This statement is endorsed by the following organizations participating in the Crown Lands Network:
Bathurst Sustainable Development
|
| If you have any questions or comments regarding anything you see on this site, please send them here.
|
|
