Protecting woodland caribou habitat
One of the largest intact ecosystems in the world
Canada's Boreal Forest is one of the most precious places on the planet. Extending from Alaska across Canada, the Boreal Forest is the largest intact forest in the world. Larger than the Brazilian rainforest, the Boreal Forest is essential for preserving biodiversity, filtering our air and water and providing a shield against climate change. The area is particularly important for the woodland caribou, an iconic Canadian species that is on the verge of extinction in much of Canada. It also provides a summer home for more than one-third of North America's songbirds.
The largest conservation initiative in history
On May 18, 2010, ForestEthics, along with 8 other leading environmental organizations and twenty-one forest products companies, embarked on the largest conservation initiative in history: the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. The ambitious initiative commences with a moratorium on all logging across more than 70 million acres of rich Boreal Forest, as key parties begin long-term conservation planning over 175 million acres – an area the size of Texas.
The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement seeks to conserve critical Boreal Forest land, preserve the vulnerable woodland caribou, and implement world-leading forestry practices. While this planning is done over the next three years, members of the Forest Products Association of Canada will honor a moratorium on logging covering 29 million hectares (71 million acres) of prime caribou habitat – an area the size of New Zealand.
However, the work to protect the Boreal Forest and the species and communities that depend on it is not finished. Make sure this agreement protects our forests,
pulls endangered caribou back from the brink, and fights climate
change:
Pledge
to be a Boreal Watchdog now >>
Massive deforestation in your mailbox
The Boreal Forest has been threatened over the past several decades by industrial logging. To date, only 12% is protected. Over 30% has already been designated for logging, energy extraction and other development, much of it within the last decade. Millions of acres of the Boreal are clearcut each year. The US consumes more than half of all the trees logged in the Boreal—many in the form of catalogs and junk mail. As the forest disappears into these disposable products, the habitat for species like woodland caribou disappears as well.
Much of the woodland caribou habitat is currently off-limits to logging due to the historic Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. This agreement has the potential transform Canadian logging for catalogs and junk mail into a more sustainable industry through planning for caribou conservation and permanently protected areas.
While we work to maximize the protection of the Boreal Forest and woodland caribou habitat in Canada, we will continue working to better the paper and privacy practices of catalogers and junk mailers in the US as we have with company's such as Victoria's Secret. Corporate junk mailers still stuff American mailboxes with more than 1 billion
pieces of mail each year -- largely pieces of mail that they did not ask for and do not want.
And, Junk mail does more than simply invade our homes and waste our time. Junk
mail also puts us at risk of identity theft, destroys forests,
contributes to climate change, and creates more waste for landfills.
In the US, go to donotmail.org to help us stop junk mail >>
Transformation through collaboration
By working with catalog companies like Victoria's Secret and office supply giants like Staples, we have worked to shift demand to more ecologically responsible paper products and away from products sourced from caribou habitat.
