Communities in the Boreal Forest

First Nations demand a leadership role in Boreal planning and protection

In June 2009, the province of Ontario, where a large proportion of Canada’s Boreal Forest is located, introduced world-leading legislation that would protect 50% of Ontario’s northern Boreal Forest and implement community-led land use planning in the rest of the region. The Far North Planning and Protection Act, if passed, would help Ontario fight climate change, protect critical ecosystems and species at risk, and ensure First Nations have control over land use decisions in their homelands.
Learn more about the Boreal Forest >>

We know that any lasting conservation agreement must meet the needs of local people. Therefore, while we look forward to the passage of this important legislation, we are working with allies to ensure that First Nations lead economic and conservation planning in Ontario’s northern Boreal Forest.
View our official response to the legislation >>

A new approach

In the Great Bear Rainforest, we found great success by helping to make sure that provincial governments worked directly with First Nations governments and others to develop land use management plans on their traditional lands. In the Boreal Forest, we are working hard to make sure that Ontario follows this example.

To make this bold commitment a reality, we need strong Far North legislation that creates a regional planning board with equal First Nation participation to coordinate land use planning. This will ensure that all regional ecological and economic values are considered when local decisions are made, and will create a new partnership between the province and First Nations.
Learn more at www.borealopportunity.ca  >>

Supporting the right to say “no”

ForestEthics supports the right of all First Nations communities to refuse industrial development on their homelands. We have supported the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation’s right to refuse mining exploration on its traditional territories in Ontario’s north.

When members of KI were sentenced to prison for refusing to end their blockade against the mining company Platinex, we joined with others in the conservation and human rights communities to demand changes to Ontario’s antiquated mining law that prevented First Nation decision-making in their territories. In Spring 2008, we took part in a mass gathering outside the Ontario legislature to support the rights of First Nations communities to say no to development in their homelands. Soon after this “Sovereignty Sleepover," the Ontario government announced that it would modernize the antiquated Mining Act to address the concerns of First Nations.
Learn more about the Boreal Forest >>