The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement is the world’s largest conservation initiative that strives to set a global precedent for boreal forest conservation and forest sector competitiveness.
Tolko Industries is a signatory to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement along with the Forest Products Association of Canada, its 18 member companies and six leading Canadian environmental non-government organizations. It directly applies to more than 73 million hectares of public forests licensed to the Forest Products Association of Canada member companies.
The agreement recognizes that the responsibility for forestry legislation and conservation in Canada’s boreal forest rests primarily with governments (federal, provincial and First Nations), and that industry and environmental groups have a duty to help define the future. The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement provides all parties with a plan to work towards a stronger, more competitive forestry industry and a better protected, more sustainably managed boreal forest.
And it’s working. For the past 5 years, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement has brought together Tolko, Forest Ethics, International Boreal Conservation Campaign (Pew Charitable Trusts), Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Manitoba Chapter, and TNC Canada to work on new ways to protect caribou and the boreal forest while also seeking to achieve high degrees of social and economic prosperity.
Together, they have recently completed technical work related to caribou and protected areas within Tolko’s forest tenure in Manitoba. The participants in this work recognize that governments and First Nations have jurisdiction and authority over land management decisions and that the technical work they are offered and conduct contribute to the success of their own planning processes.
This technical work can make a significant contribution to conservation at a global scale while also supporting prosperity for the people of Manitoba and their communities.
Over the coming months, the partners in this initiative will share their technical findings with government officials and First Nation communities in the hopes that the work can inform ongoing forest management in the province as well as the land use planning efforts being pursued by many First Nation communities.
Tolko is a founding partner in the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, and is committed to responsible and environmentally sustainable management of forest tenures.
More information can be found at:
https://www.stand.earth/about/achievements/protecting-north-americas-boreal-forest
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/international-boreal-conservation-campaign
http://cpawsmb.org/campaigns/borealmanitoba
