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Magazine Issue 4 - Summer 1997
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| At Loggerheads -Transnationals and the destruction of the Canadian Rainforest. Jennifer Linton reports On April 8th, 1997 Chief Quatsinas of the indigenous First Nation, the Nuxalk addressed a trade seminar for UK timber trade retailers in Piccadilly to alert them to the crisis - namely the destruction of the temperate rainforest - facing his people in British Columbia (BC), Canada. The seminar was organised by Reforest the Earth, UK and the Forest Action Network (Canada and UK) to ask these retailers to stop purchasing from the BC temperate rainforest, especially from the largest logging companies operating in the region (see below). An estimated 70% of the earth's original forests have been destroyed or severely degraded (Forest Action Network, The ecoforestry solution (small booklet). The force driving this destruction is our insatiable consumption of forest products for paper, cardboard packaging, disposable nappies and toilet paper. Pulp production alone guzzles around 4 billion trees every year. UK per capita wood consumption is among the highest in the world with 50% comprising paper products: around 280 million rolls of kitchen paper are sold in the UK every year and roughly 12-20,000 trees are cut down to produce every edition of the Sunday times (Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Corporate power, corruption & the destruction of the world's forests (1996), 15). Since the UK has already destroyed most of its forests 90% of national timber and pulp consumption comes from imports, mainly from Scandinavia, Russia and North America (EIA, 15). The UK is B.C.'s 4th largest customer of pulp and paper. The Rainforests of BC Half of the temperate rainforests which once covered 1% of the world's surface are now gone. The Canadian rainforest, which makes up half the remains (Forest Action Network, The Liquidation of Canada's Rainforests (information sheet)) stretches the entire length of Canada's Pacific coast and covers an area of 70,000 sq. km - roughly the size of Wales. The forests, composed mainly of Douglas fir, hemlock, western red cedar, and spruce, are home to over 100 vertebrates including the grizzly and white bears, otters, salmon and eagles. 500-1000 year-old trees are common and trees of an age of 1700 years have been found (Reforest the Earth, Briefing Sheet (1997)). 50% of the human population of the rainforest area is made up of 7 First Nations (indigenous peoples) whose traditional lands cover most of the area. Since most of the First Nations in BC have niether been defeated in battle, nor ceded their lands nor signed their rights away by treaty they believe that the land is rightfully theirs to control. The government, however, believes differently. .. Packaging the land Rights to harvest timber are issued to private forest companies by the provincial government in the form of tree-farm licences which last from one to 25 years and are, supposedly, subject to regular reviews and audits (Canadian Pulp and Paper, Bulletin: Forest ownership and the regulation of forest management in Canada (Nov. 1995)). Most of the land has now been parcelled out, thanks to the “Great Coast Giveaway of September 27th, 1995. On this date, without public consultation or announcement, the Ministry of Forests gave virtually all of the last unassigned areas of merchantable old-growth forest - there was no bidding process or exchange of money - to a handful of major corporations for clearcut logging or roadbuilding.(Forest Action Network, Newsletter (July, 1996) Meanwhile the government is actually a shareholder in many companies (On June 30th, 1996, the BC Government held 3,719,700 shares in MacMillan Bloedel (market value of 67,326,570) and 447,400 shares in Interfor (5,368,800).) and in 1993 a small number of the largest logging companies paid roughly one third the stumpage rates charged to smaller timber firms (EIA, 21). Although the new Forest Practices Code sets out laws restricting the size of clearcut blocks and threatening fines of up to $1 million for violations, in practice, numerous violations have been found and no fines or court charges have yet been laid (BC Ministry of Forests, Forestry in British Columbia: the answer book, (Aug., 1994) 5 ; Forest Action Network, The Forest Practices Code (information sheet). So What's the problem? The majority of logging is done by profit-oriented, transnational corporations (TNCs) who have little regard for the land or local peoples. They charge into the forest with heavy machinery building roads as they go, import the workforce, cut what they need, export the profits and charge out again leaving destruction in their wake. Timber TNCs favour industrial clearcutting because it's cheap, fast and requires less labour. Clearcutting, however, has devastating effects on the fragile ecosystem of the rainforest. It can cause high levels of soil erosion, threaten species that rely on the old-growth trees and snags for their habitat and wreak irreversible damage on salmon streams (due to silting of spawning beds and increase in temperature). Then there is the problem of overcutting. The government's Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) of 1,000,000 m3 per year is nearly double their own figures for an annual sustainable yield level of 555,000 m3 (and even that has been criticised as being too high).10 As it stands now, only 7% of BC's coastal temperate rainforest is protected. This is set to rise to approx. 12%, but 12% of all land (including rock and ice) rather than primary forest. The indigenous people are seeing their livelihood, culture and traditions gradually eroded. The Nuxalk people in the village of Bella Coola have depended on these forests for almost 10,000 years. Now while over 1 million m3 of timber is removed each year from Nuxalk Territory without their consent, very little local labour is used and many of the salmon spawning grounds are being destroyed (Forest Action Network, The Nuxalk Nation (information sheet)). Who is responsible? The international trade in wood, pulp and paper is worth around US $100 billion per year, making it the third largest industrial sector after telecommunications and car manufacture. Around 80-90% of this trade is now controlled by TNCs (EIA, 2). In BC, the top three companies listed below are responsible for cutting 50 per cent of the rainforest's AAC. MacMillan Bloedel( MB): Canada's biggest forest company, MB exerts a strong influence over the provincial government. MB has 66 known violations of Canadian and BC laws dating back to 1969. In October 1994 the company was responsible for the largest toxic spill in BC history (600,000 litres of chlorine dioxide) and in1993 attempts to log the last remaining pristine valleys in Clayoquot Sound prompted the largest incident of civil disobedience in Canadian history (EIA, 21; Greenpeace, Rainforest ravagers, 6). Interfor Canada's second biggest forest company, Interfor has had seven convictions of environmental law-breaking in the last 15 years. It has consistently violated Coastal Fisheries/Forestry Guidelines since June 15th 1995 and has contravened the Forest Practices Code 391 times (resulting in only 39 official enforcement actions, and no charges). 7% of its exports are destined for the UK. Interfor was a major beneficiary of the “Great Coast Giveaway”, receiving more than 72,500 ha of pristine forest from the MoF. (Of no relevance whatsoever is the fact that the MoF official responsible for the giveaway was the wife of the Intefor forester for the Mid-Coast district. Hmmm....) (EIA, 21; Greenpeace, 7). Doman Industries/Western Forest Products Canada's third biggest forest company, Doman has failed to comply with coastal fish/forestry guidelines on more than 80% of areas evaluated, according to a 1994 MoF report on the North Coast district. The CEO Herb Doman faces allegation of insider trading for allegedly tipping off a former B.C. Premier and his brother about a cancellation of a proposed take-over of Doman Industries (Greenpeace, 8). Then what's the solution? Ecoforestry The consensus among groups opposed to current logging practices is that rainforest logging must be switched from multi-national, industrial forestry to promoting sustainability and locally-based practices. Ecologically responsible forestry will leave behind a fully functioning forest using practices such as single-tree selection, minimal road-building and forbidding the use of any toxic substances or genetically modified organisms. Management of forests should be left to the local communities rather than TNCs and checks and balances would be incorporated at the community level with full public accountability. (FAN, Ecoforestry; Greenpeace, 11) Certification In the UK the demand for sustainably harvested timber has been recognised by the Group of 95+. Set up by theWWF, the group represents 20% of UK retail sales of timber products and has committed to sell only eco-certified wood and paper products by the year 2000. Currently more than 3 million hectares of forest and plantation have been certified through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) - an international certification body - (none in Canada as of yet) and any products from these sites will be marked with the FSC logo. The Canadian timber industry's own certification body, CSA, is not recognised by most of the 95+ Group. So what can I do?
Addresses Sand offices for timber or pulp and paper from BC |