Why, despite Canada's demands, does logging continue to affect forests?

OTTAWA — Canada has long promoted itself as a model for protecting the world's largest swath of boreal forest, which is crucial to fighting climate change.

But a new study using nearly half a century of data from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec—two of the country's major commercial logging regions—reveals that logging has caused serious damage that will be difficult to reverse.

Researchers led by a group from Griffith University in Australia found that since 1976 logging in the two provinces has led to the removal of 14.3 million hectares of boreal forest, northern forest lands made up primarily of evergreen trees.

While nearly 23 million hectares of trees at least a century old remain in the region, logging has devastated this forest, leaving a patchwork of isolated groves that has created a landscape less able to support wildlife, the study found. . And it has made the land more susceptible to wildfires, scientists say.

Although Canada claims to demand high standards from logging companies, scientists involved in the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Land, said their findings show that the country allows unsustainable practices that have deeply degraded the forest.

Under Canada's forestry standards, logging companies can clear vast areas of all trees and vegetation and must replant the land or prove that the forest will regenerate naturally.

But, scientists say, without the thick bark of older trees, younger trees are more vulnerable to wildfires, and logging companies often replant species better suited to their industry than fire-resistant ones.

“The Canadian government claims to have managed the forest in accordance with the principles of sustainable forest management,” said Brendan Mackey, lead author of the study and professor at Griffith University. “But their notion of sustainability is really tied to maintaining and maximizing timber production and ensuring the regeneration of commercially desirable trees. “That has many implications for biodiversity.”

Canadian officials did not directly address questions about the study, providing only a statement that broadly cited the country's efforts to preserve the boreal forest.

That policy focuses on “conservation, recreation, habitat, water quality, economic development and the relationship that indigenous peoples have with the land and forests,” said the statement from Carolyn Svonkin, spokesperson for the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Canada.

It is estimated that the world's boreal forests together contain 703 gigatonnes of carbon. (The world's tropical forests store about 375 megatons.)

Mackey said replanting land after cutting down older trees produces younger forests that retain less carbon, are generally more vulnerable to disease and insect infestations and are poor habitats for many animals and plants.

The researchers studied the effects of logging on forest caribou, which require large areas of older forest and are affected by human disturbance. Of 21 herds studied in the boreal regions of the provinces, 19 were at high or very high risk of being unable to support their population.

By: IAN AUSTEN and VJOSA ISAI