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Public Priorities for Crown Land Slipping Away

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) has done a comparison of recent government actions concerning forest management on New Brunswick’s Crown lands with those recommended by the Select Committee on Wood Supply and those proposed in the Jaakko Poyry report (attached).

The vision of New Brunswick’s public forests as public lands in public hands voiced by many New Brunswickers during the public hearings of the Select Committee on Wood Supply appears to be slipping away. Government concessions to the large pulp and paper companies are multiplying. Actions are being taken which directly conflict with recommendations of the Select Committee - in some cases parroting the recommendations of the industry’s Jaakko Poyry report which the public had roundly rejected.

Recommendations in the Jaakko Poyry report to abandon government oversight of logging operations on Crown land, increase logging in wildlife habitat areas and buffers, and freeze biodiversity standards for forestry operations - which were entirely rejected by the Select Committee in its report - are now government policy.

The vision of a public forest with less clearcutting, managed for a diversity of species and diversity of high value products, with more benefits flowing to New Brunswickers and their local communities is fading fast.

• Clearcutting was to be reduced by 10 to 15%, but government is doubling the maximum clearcut size from 100 ha to 200 ha.
• The Select Committee recommended that royalties paid to New Brunswickers by companies cutting wood from Crown land should increase, while government plans to reduce them for pulpwood.
• The Select Committee wanted government to give the right of access to public timber resources to adjacent rural communities when mills close. Instead, companies are being allowed to hold on to vast areas of Crown land after closing their mills. Some thought is even being given to allowing companies to own their quota of wood from Crown land and sell it to the highest bidder, if they so choose.

“It feels like the people of New Brunswick are being betrayed,” said David Coon, Policy Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick. “Most people believed that government had accepted their view that Crown land should be managed in the public interest for public benefit, but the opposite is happening,” said Coon.

Crown land is held in trust by the provincial government to be managed for the long-term benefit of current and future generations without undermining its integrity.

“Historically, the companies have fought for and won major concesssions from government whenever there has been a major downturn in the pulp and paper industry, much to the public’s detriment,” said Inuk Simard, CCNB’s staff forester. “Only this time the downturn is not temporary but the concessions are bigger - with government backing down from the most popular recommendations of the Select Committee on Wood Supply and moving closer to Jaakko Poyry,” said Inuk Simard, CCNB’s staff forester.

Background documentation: "CCNB analysis comparing recent Gov't measures with Select Committee and Jaakko Pöyry Recommendations"

Contact:
David Coon, Policy Director, (506) 458-8747
Inuk Simard, Campaign Forester, (506) 458-8747

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