Frequently asked questions about AbitibiBowater

1. Why is Greenpeace targeting AbitibiBowater?
2. Has Greenpeace been in contact with AbitibiBowater?
3. What is Greenpeace demanding AbitibiBowater do?
4. What is AbitibiBowater?
5. What does AbitibiBowater manufacture?
6. What influence can national and international markets have on the practices of AbitibiBowater?
7. Canada’s Boreal Forest: What is it and why is it important?
8. The Boreal Forest: Who owns it?
9. If exploiting the forest is legal, why is there a problem?
10. How can we protect this natural heritage for our children and their children?
11. What is the government’s and the forest companies’ responsibility for this situation?
12. What about Ontario Premier McGuinty’s recent announcement to protect the Boreal Forest?

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Why is Greenpeace targeting AbitibiBowater?
Forests that are fragmented by clear-cut logging and other logging operations like the building of logging roads, compromise the forest’s ability to store carbon and preserve biodiversity. As less than 10% of the world’s forest remain in large intact blocks, the last remaining intact areas of the Boreal Forest are all that more important. At Greenpeace, we are concerned that a very limited amount of the areas logged by AbitibiBowater are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the only sustainable forestry certification system recognized by the majority of environmental groups. Greenpeace strongly advocates that FSC certification must go hand in hand with intact forest protection. Until AbitibiBowater defers logging in intact forest areas they will remain a target of Greenpeace’s Boreal Forest campaign. For more information on climate change and the importance of the Boreal Forest, see our reports: Turning Up the Heat: Global Warming and the Degradation of Canada’ Boreal Forest.

Has Greenpeace been in contact with AbitibiBowater?
In June 2003, Greenpeace began discussions with AbitibiBowater’s predecessor company, Abitibi-Consolidated to improve logging practices and conserve intact areas of its forest lands. Discussions continued informally for 2 years until we decided that the lack of action on their part did not warrant further discussions. In 2007 we resumed discussions with AbitibiBowater and worked with a 3rd party facilitator in a formal dialogue process. Unfortunately, after many months of discussions and meetings we reached an impasse, and our formal dialogue was adjourned by the facilitator. AbitibiBowater is unwilling to make any significant changes to its logging practices by suspending logging in intact areas of its forest lands. Less than 35% of AbitibiBowater’s forest lands remain intact. We believe that the time for change is now and that actions speak louder than words. Greenepeace will continue to pressure AbitibBowater through public outreach and marketplace engagement until they are ready to suspend logging in intact forest areas. In the mean time we are asking their major customer to begin to look elsewhere for supplies of paper, pulp and lumber.

What is Greenpeace demanding AbitibiBowater do?
Because AbitibiBowater controls vast tracts of forestland, its practices and choices have a serious impact on the future health of the Boreal Forest.

Greenpeace is calling on the company to:
1. Immediately end logging in intact areas of the Boreal Forest.
2. Adopt Forest Stewardship Council certification for all logging operations to guarantee forested areas are managed responsibly.
3. Commit to not seeking new allocations in northern areas of the Boreal Forest
4. Advocate for new protected areas to be established by government.

What is AbitibiBowater?
AbitibiBowater is the largest logging company in Canada exploiting more than 25 million hectares of forested land in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia - an area larger than the state of New York.

Abitibi-Consolidated was created in 1997 by the merger of Abitibi-Price and Stone-Consolidated. In turn, in 2007, Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater Incorporated merged to form AbitibiBowater. The company possesses the largest allocated harvest volume in Quebec and Ontario, the vast majority in the Boreal Forest. In Quebec alone, the company is licensed to cut 5.5 million cubic metres of timber annually, enough to fill Montreal’s Olympic Stadium almost three times.

AbitibiBowater’s shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. The company sells its products to more than 1,600 customers in nearly 70 countries. Most of these customers are located in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. AbitibiBowater employs some 18,000 employees and its 2006 pro forma annual revenues hit nearly US $8billion.

The CEO of AbitibiBowater is David J. Paterson.

What does AbitibiBowater manufacture?
AbitibiBowater is the world leader in newsprint manufacturing and is a major manufacturer of commercial printing paper and lumber products. The company annually produces nearly 4.3 million tonnes of newsprint, two million tonnes of commercial paper used to print catalogues, magazines, books, advertising pamphlets and directories and two billion board feet of lumber.


What influence can national and international markets have on the practices of AbitibiBowater?
One of the most effective ways to change the destructive practices of forest companies is to use the marketplace. Customers of AbitibiBowater have the ability to pressure the company to change its logging practices. They can do so by adopting purchasing policies that favour products manufactured using environmentally and socially responsible practices and that do not come from intact forest areas and by cutting their ties with irresponsible suppliers until logging practices change.

Other companies are adopting purchasing policies that consider forest sustainability, such as Rona’s leading procurement policy that will help conserve Canada’s forests.

International markets around the world have played an important role in recent efforts to protect fragile forest ecosystems, including areas in British Columbia, the Brazilian Amazon and Indonesia. These markets can again play a key role in securing the future of the Boreal Forest. Major European and American companies are increasingly demanding that the products they purchase be manufactured according to strict environmental standards. Some logging companies are stepping up to meet this demand.

Greenpeace is in contact with numerous customers of AbitibiBowater and is urging them to adopt policies that will help put an end to destructive logging practices. To date more than 11 million dollars worth of contracts with AbitibiBowater have been cancelled by concerned customers.

Canada’s Boreal Forest: What is it and why is it important?
Canada’s Boreal Forest region is the largest ecosystem in Canada, stretching from the Yukon to Newfoundland. The region, including peat lands and treeless areas, totals 545 million hectares while the forested area covers 310 million hectares. The Boreal Forest region holds more than 47.5 billion tonnes of carbon in its trees and soil, representing a massive carbon storehouse important for battling climate change. More than 500 First Nations communities are based in the Boreal Forest, and many of them rely on it for economic and cultural sustenance. The Boreal Forest is also home to countless wildlife species including wolves, grizzly and black bears, cougars, wolverines and more than a billion birds.
See a map of Canada’s Boreal Forest

Boreal Forest: Who owns it?
The vast majority of Canada’s Boreal Forest is publicly owned land and belongs to all citizens of Canada. Regardless, logging rights to exploit much of the Boreal Forest in Ontario and Quebec have been allocated by provincial governments to logging companies. Logging companies are assigned licenses or management agreements, allowing them to harvest the forest with full legality.

If exploiting the forest is legal, why is there a problem?
Though logging companies would say otherwise, very little attention is given to issues such as preserving biodiversity, protecting the habitats of endangered species and conserving intact areas of the forest.

The consequence of this is that much of the forested land south of the northern logging limit has been allocated to industry. Very few protected areas of significant size, off limits to logging, break the logging companies’ dominance over forested land from provincial border to provincial border. The result is that less than 14 per cent of Quebec’s Boreal Forest and less than 18 per cent of the Boreal Forest in Ontario are still intact. The impact of this fragmentation and degradation of the forest is great: The woodland caribou, on all of Canada’s 25 cent coins, is now a species threatened with extinction.
Science is also showing us that intact forest landscapes are crucial in mitigating the impacts of climate

How can we protect this natural heritage for our children and their children?
The only areas where logging is not allowed are those that extend beyond the northern logging limit or have been set aside in protected areas. As shocking as it may seem, clearcut logging is still used in almost 90 per cent of logging operations in the forest. Unfortunately, less than five per cent of the forest in Quebec and less than nine per cent in Ontario are currently protected against any cutting.

What is the government’s and the forest companies’ responsibility for this situation?
On the one hand, there is a glaring lack of political will to protect the Boreal Forest. On the other, major forest companies exert enormous pressure to not have logging areas taken away from them.  We believe that logging companies and government have an equal responsibility to sustainably manage and protect the forest. Logging companies must stop logging in the remaining intact areas of the Boreal Forest and begin responsible forest management certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Governments must create new, large protected areas, prioritizing intact areas of the forest and initiate proper land use planning.

What about Ontario Premier McGuinty’s recent announcement to protect the Boreal Forest?
In July 2008 Greenpeace welcomed Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s announcement and plan to protect at least 22.5 million hectares (225,000 km2) of intact Boreal Forest in the Far North of Ontario. This is a very positive first step in the right direction for Boreal Forest conservation. These forests will be part of an interconnected network of protected areas across the Far North. The announcement is promising news for Canada’s Boreal Forest, but it will need to be followed closely to see how this commitment is implemented over the coming decade. Greenpeace also wants to know what Ontario and Quebec governments will do to ensure the protection of the threatened Southern Boreal Forest, which contains crucial intact forests for mitigating climate change and habitat for threatened wildlife species and which was not covered by this announcement.