Feature story - September 9, 2008
After more than ten months of discussions, including several months of mediated dialog, Greenpeace's talks with logging giant AbitibiBowater have ended. The company is unwilling to work at protecting intact Boreal Forest and continues to log in many critical forest areas, including caribou habitat.
Abitibi discussions collapse
We are deeply disappointed that the discussions have stopped 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," but 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 their logging operations, and the company is currently planning to log in major intact forest areas in both Ontario and Quebec in the future.
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.
Because AbitibiBowater's actions speak much louder than their words, Greenpeace will continue to protest the company's logging of intact forests and critical habitat for threatened woodland caribou.