The mature Acadian forest of New Brunswick is being lost at a rate of 1 percent every year to clearcutting. The area of Crown land in the province containing mature Acadian forest has already dropped below 45 percent and is now one of the most endangered forests in North America. Under the current forest management regime, only 12 percent of mature Acadian forest will remain on New Brunswick Crown land by 2025.
Clearcutting and replacing our naturally diverse Acadian forest with softwood plantations is accelerating the loss of biodiversity in our Acadian forest. As a signatory to the U.N. Convention on Biodiversity, we are obligated to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. According to the latest science, this will require tripling our provincial standard for forest biodiversity to keep the area of mature Acadian forest from falling below 40 percent of our Crown lands.
If we don’t act now to save the Acadian forest, we can expect a new wave of regional loss of species beginning with the northern flying squirrel and songbirds like the Blackburnian warbler.
Only a handful of corporations hold licences over all of New Brunswick’s public forests. These corporations have pressured the government into maintaining current wood allocation levels. Wood allocations in their current form are not ecologically, economically or socially acceptable or sustainable. Thirteen public hearings across this province ended with recommendations that the annual allowable clearcut be reduced 10 to 15 percent by 2007. It is the provincial government’s responsibility to properly manage and conserve our public forest.
Community forestry is currently thriving in many parts of the world. This lower impact forestry would lift our forests out of endangered status and return it to being one of the most rich, diverse and best managed forests in the world. Community forestry would also provide more fair access and share in the economic wealth found in our forest resources for this generation and future generations of New Brunswickers.
Considering that our mature and diverse Acadian forest is essential to the web of life in New Brunswick and to the economic well-being of our communities, we, the undersigned, call on the government of New Brunswick to:
- End clearcutting of Acadian forest on Crown land so that it can be managed for the full diversity that it can provide;
- Triple the provincial standard for forest biodiversity by 2007, so we can meet the 2010 target for biodiversity conservation in the U.N. Convention on Biodiversity; and
- Change the Crown land licensing system so that it supports community forestry and public stewardship of our forest.
|
