The Ontario government`s latest plan to open the province to unfettered business predictably tries to pave the way to logging more forests. Ontario`s Forestry Strategy, released on Wednesday, assumes that logging can be doubled without harming biodiversity, wildlife habitat or species at risk and boasts about industry`s "strong record of responsible forest management."

This claim is made despite the fact boreal woodland caribou are threatened with extinction in Ontario, and scientists have illustrated that human disturbance is the primary driver of their decline, including logging roads that sever undisturbed habitat on which caribou depend. Despite industry`s long-standing claim that protecting critical caribou habitat is incompatible with a healthy forestry sector, it has finally recognized there isn`t a shortage of wood. Now singing a different tune, the forestry industry acknowledges there is a massive surplus of forest they could be logging but aren`t.

According to the strategy, the volume of timber now harvested is less than 60 per cent of what it was in 2000. The strategy states, "Ontario is utilizing only half of the wood that it could sustainably harvest. Approximately 15 million cubic metres of wood is not being used and could be available for attracting investment."


Source: www.thestar.com