Fredericton - Today, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick is launching the Acadian Forest Declaration and inviting individuals and organizations to endorse the declaration. In order to meet the 2010 Biodiversity Target agreed to in the U.N. Convention on Biodiversity, New Brunswick has to take concrete steps towards raising the provincial standard for forest biodiversity by 2007. “The Acadian Forest Declaration specifically calls on the government to triple the current provincial forest biodiversity standard” said Inuk Simard, Campaign Forester. The Convention is a legally binding agreement between most of the world's nations including Canada. It commits Canada to significantly reducing biodiversity loss by the year 2010.

Recent research done on the Acadian forest in New Brunswick shows that the province's current biodiversity standard is three times below levels needed to maintain biodiversity in a forest area. Forest Management Guidelines to Protect Native Biodiversity in the Greater Fundy Ecosystem (Betts and Forbes (eds.), 2005) recommends maintaining the proportion of late successional age classes at 35-40 per cent in stand-replacing forest and 40-85 per cent in gap-replacing forest.

“New Brunswick needs to move away from clearcutting and towards select cutting if we are to save the intricate web of life found in our Acadian forest,” stated Tracy Glynn, Acadian forest campaigner at the Conservation Council. “Low impact community forestry has been shown to maintain biodiversity levels and create more jobs in the forestry sector,” said Glynn.

The Conservation Council will present the signed Acadian Forest Declaration to the Premier of New Brunswick and the Minister of Natural Resources in December 2006.

“The web of life is unwinding with the destruction of ecosystems, but halting the rapid loss of biodiversity from our Acadian forest is within our grasp if this government is prepared to act before the next set of five year forest management plans take effect in April of 2007,” stated David Coon, Policy Director for the Conservation Council. “As the Acadian forest is one of the most endangered forests in Canada, action in New Brunswick will go along way to meeting Canada’s 2010 biodiversity obligations,” he said.

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Related documentation:
- Acadian Forest Declaration
- Biodiversity Backgrounder [PDF]
- Forest Management Guidelines to Protect Native Biodiversity in the Greater Fundy Ecosystem [PDF]
- Sierra Club report card on performance of provinces towards reaching the National Forest Strategy objectives
- Millenium Ecosystem Assessment

For more information, contact:
Tracy Glynn, Acadian Forest Campaigner, 506 458-8747
David Coon, Policy Director, 506 458-8747
Inuk Simard, Campaign Forester, 506 458-8747

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