Somar Al-Dali
02-01-2009, 09:34 AM
From GreenPeace (Canada)
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The Boreal Forest
Our Boreal forest team maintained a high profile. They convinced a number of companies to help protect forests that have a high conservation value by moving to buy products certified to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard. The best example was RONA which took significant strides to develop the strongest forest products procurement policy in North America.
In June, the Grassy Narrows First Nation won a decade-long fight to protect its traditional area when AbitibiBowater announced it would stop logging in the one million hectare Whiskey Jack Forest, near Kenora. Greenpeace and other environmental groups supported the First Nation in its struggle.
Greenpeace released two scientifically significant reports:
* Turning Up the Heat: Global Warming and the Degradation of Canada’s Boreal Forest, which shows that clear-cutting increases the effects of climate change.
* Cut and Run: Kimberly-Clark's legacy of environmental devastation and social conflict in the Kenogami Forest
Finally, Greenpeace and other environmental groups were able to celebrate a victory when the Ontario government promised to protect at least 22.5 million hectares of intact Boreal Forest in the far north of the province. The courageous campaigns of First Nations communities were also instrumental in this victory. The promise by Ontario represents the single largest conservation commitment in Canadian history
The Great Bear Rainforest
Greenpeace continued working to ensure that the March 31, 2009 deadline to protect the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia is met by the Provincial government. We launched a Keep the Promise campaign to encourage Premier Campbell to keep his promise and to remind him that the world is watching. We also celebrated the Haida Nation’s accomplishment -- successful negotiation of an agreement with the province of B.C. that extends protection of the Great Bear Rainforest to an additional 254,000 hectares, doubling the protected area on Haida Gwaii.
Greenpeace successfully worked with three logging companies to have them voluntarily revise their plans, and ultimately commit to not log one million hectares of their tenures prior to March 31st 2009 to maintain important ecological values.
Three logging companies have undergone an assessment for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification covering a portion of their logging tenures up to one million hectares.
Greenpeace and its partners created a spatially explicit plan for maintaining over time the ecological integrity to the rainforest.
And in the lead-up to the Games in Vancouver in 2010, Greenpeace launched the website www.goodwoodwatch.ca to track the use of 'good wood' in Olympic venues.
Global Warming
Greenpeace launched the KYOTOplus campaign, along with other environmental groups, to mobilize Canadians to demand real action on global warming from the federal government.
Thousands of Canadians joined KYOTOplus in 2008 by signing the petition.
We went to the important United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland in December with an outline for a positive role for Canada in the talks.
Canada and other countries were supposed to use the Poznan conference as a key milestone on the way to a stronger approach to stopping global warming.
Unfortunately, Canada did not play a positive role. It undermined the conference and set the process back.
Thanks to our efforts with international environmental groups, the Harper government was identified as one of the main climate villains in at the disappointing Poznan.
During the federal election campaign in October, we kept climate change on the agenda.
Greenpeace volunteers chased down candidates and got 490 to sign the KYOTOplus pledge for politicians. Not one Conservative signed. The leaders of the other four parties all signed.
Volunteers distributed tens of thousands of leaflets calling on Canadians to vote for leadership on climate change. We were part of the “anybody but Harper” movement. Staff and volunteers bird-dogged the Conservatives and Prime Minister Harper in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.
In July, Greenpeace volunteers floated a huge balloon and banner at the meeting of provincial premiers in Quebec City calling on them to support KYOTOplus.
2009 will be a crucial year for KYOTOplus. The COUNTDOWN to COPENHAGEN will be in full swing. We need to convince the federal government to play a positive role in the historic UN climate change meeting that will take place in Copenhagen in December, 2009.
The world must decide to extend and strengthen the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen
.
.
-------------------------------------
The Boreal Forest
Our Boreal forest team maintained a high profile. They convinced a number of companies to help protect forests that have a high conservation value by moving to buy products certified to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard. The best example was RONA which took significant strides to develop the strongest forest products procurement policy in North America.
In June, the Grassy Narrows First Nation won a decade-long fight to protect its traditional area when AbitibiBowater announced it would stop logging in the one million hectare Whiskey Jack Forest, near Kenora. Greenpeace and other environmental groups supported the First Nation in its struggle.
Greenpeace released two scientifically significant reports:
* Turning Up the Heat: Global Warming and the Degradation of Canada’s Boreal Forest, which shows that clear-cutting increases the effects of climate change.
* Cut and Run: Kimberly-Clark's legacy of environmental devastation and social conflict in the Kenogami Forest
Finally, Greenpeace and other environmental groups were able to celebrate a victory when the Ontario government promised to protect at least 22.5 million hectares of intact Boreal Forest in the far north of the province. The courageous campaigns of First Nations communities were also instrumental in this victory. The promise by Ontario represents the single largest conservation commitment in Canadian history
The Great Bear Rainforest
Greenpeace continued working to ensure that the March 31, 2009 deadline to protect the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia is met by the Provincial government. We launched a Keep the Promise campaign to encourage Premier Campbell to keep his promise and to remind him that the world is watching. We also celebrated the Haida Nation’s accomplishment -- successful negotiation of an agreement with the province of B.C. that extends protection of the Great Bear Rainforest to an additional 254,000 hectares, doubling the protected area on Haida Gwaii.
Greenpeace successfully worked with three logging companies to have them voluntarily revise their plans, and ultimately commit to not log one million hectares of their tenures prior to March 31st 2009 to maintain important ecological values.
Three logging companies have undergone an assessment for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification covering a portion of their logging tenures up to one million hectares.
Greenpeace and its partners created a spatially explicit plan for maintaining over time the ecological integrity to the rainforest.
And in the lead-up to the Games in Vancouver in 2010, Greenpeace launched the website www.goodwoodwatch.ca to track the use of 'good wood' in Olympic venues.
Global Warming
Greenpeace launched the KYOTOplus campaign, along with other environmental groups, to mobilize Canadians to demand real action on global warming from the federal government.
Thousands of Canadians joined KYOTOplus in 2008 by signing the petition.
We went to the important United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland in December with an outline for a positive role for Canada in the talks.
Canada and other countries were supposed to use the Poznan conference as a key milestone on the way to a stronger approach to stopping global warming.
Unfortunately, Canada did not play a positive role. It undermined the conference and set the process back.
Thanks to our efforts with international environmental groups, the Harper government was identified as one of the main climate villains in at the disappointing Poznan.
During the federal election campaign in October, we kept climate change on the agenda.
Greenpeace volunteers chased down candidates and got 490 to sign the KYOTOplus pledge for politicians. Not one Conservative signed. The leaders of the other four parties all signed.
Volunteers distributed tens of thousands of leaflets calling on Canadians to vote for leadership on climate change. We were part of the “anybody but Harper” movement. Staff and volunteers bird-dogged the Conservatives and Prime Minister Harper in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.
In July, Greenpeace volunteers floated a huge balloon and banner at the meeting of provincial premiers in Quebec City calling on them to support KYOTOplus.
2009 will be a crucial year for KYOTOplus. The COUNTDOWN to COPENHAGEN will be in full swing. We need to convince the federal government to play a positive role in the historic UN climate change meeting that will take place in Copenhagen in December, 2009.
The world must decide to extend and strengthen the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen
.
.