(Ottawa) – The Sierra Club of Canada today unveiled its new and improved National Forest Strategy database, which this year includes grades and a best practices layer. The database provides a revealing picture of forestry practices in Alberta.

The report card database documents and evaluates the progress of provincial commitments under the National Forest Strategy (NFS), a national road map for more ecologically and socially sustainable forest management. The NFS was developed by a process that included industry, small woodlot owners, academics, Aboriginal communities, environmental organizations and government.

The database also includes a best practices layer that highlights progressive provincial/territorial progressive forest management policies and industrial and small scale forest management initiatives across the country.

“The database accurately reflects some of the regressive policies and practices in New Brunswick,” noted Inuk Simard, Acadian Forest Campaign Forester, Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

The database reveals the need to realign New Brunswick’s forest management policies and practices to maintain the natural species composition and age class of the Acadian forest. The province received failing grades for the lack of information and transparency in establishing wood allocations and for its forest tenure system, which doesn’t create an adequate opportunity for tenure reallocation.

“This database provides comprehensive information to Canadians to compare forest practices in their part of the country to what is going on elsewhere,” said Rachel Plotkin, the National Forests and Biodiversity campaigner for the Sierra Club and the database’s architect. “It also illustrates trends in poor forest management—for the most part, provinces and territories are falling short when it comes to developing and implementing strong policies to maintain natural species diversity and protect intact and old growth forest areas.”

“The database also describes how New Brunswick’s forest management system, portrayed by our government as the ’Best in the country if not in the world’ still has lots of room for major improvements” concluded Simard.

“The best practices layer shows that progressive forestry is possible, even at the industrial scale, and we hope that the laggards will join the leaders before too long,” Plotkin added.

To view the database, visit: http://www.sierraforestwatch.ca

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For more information, contact:
Rachel Plotkin, Forests and Biodiversity Program, SCC, (613) 241-4611
Inuk Simard, Acadian Forest Campaign, CCNB, (506) 458-8747