Feature story - September 9, 2008
Greenpeace took out a full page ad in the Globe and Mail on September 9th 2008 to remind Canada’s largest logging company their logging activities must change. Logging giant AbitibiBowater is unwilling to work at protecting intact forest areas and continues to log in many critical forest areas, including caribou habitat. The ad reminds AbitibiBowater that actions speak louder than words and it is not enough to just talk about sustainability.
Actionsspeaklouderthanwords. SaveCanada’sBoreal Forest.Fullpage ad in the September 9, 2008 edition of the Globe and Mail questioning AbitibiBowater's commitment to sustainable logging.
This ad comes a few days after more than ten months of discussions, including many months of formal negotiations with a mediator ended. Greenpeace is deeply disappointed that the discussions halted and that AbitibiBowater continues to log the last remaining intact forests in Ontario and Quebec. Greenpeace feels that the talks could have been productive if AbitibiBowater had focused more on seeking solutions to Boreal Forest destruction and focused less on what they feel they can't do.
AbitibBowater wants to "talk and log" and a business as usual scenario does not address the urgency for protecting what remains of intact forest in the Boreal. Indeed, during the many months of discussions, AbitibiBowater did not curtail logging operations in intact forests and logging is currently planned in major intact forest areas in both Ontario and Quebec. Less than 35 per cent of AbitibiBowater's forestlands remain intact. Intact forests are key habitats for endangered species such as woodland caribou and help mitigate the impacts of climate change by storing more carbon than fragmented forests.
AbitibiBowater's actions speak louder than words and so Greenpeace will continue to communicate concerns over AbitibiBowater's logging of intact forests and habitat of threatened woodland caribou to major European and North American customers.