Letter to the Honourable Minister Catherine McKenna: The importance of forests in the context of climate change

This submission is on behalf of the signatories to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA), including the Forest Products Association of Canada, 19 leading forest products companies, and 6 leading environmental non-governmental organizations. When we signed this agreement in 2010, we committed to work together on shared solutions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change as part of our vision for a stronger, more competitive forestry industry and a better protected, more sustainably managed boreal forest. As the consequences of climate change continue to emerge, finding these shared solutions is more vital than ever.

Both FPAC and a number of the ENGOs in the CBFA have, or will, also make individual submissions to ECCC. This submission is meant to highlight where there is common interest and agreement. However, there are areas where the CBFA signatories do have differing perspectives, which are expressed in more detail in our individual submissions.

Topics that signatories are discussing in more detail include: how to address emissions resulting from forest harvesting into a life cycle assessment in a robust and manageable manner, whether and when there is a role for increased biomass harvesting as a climate change solution, and what are adaptation approaches that also reflect the multiple values of our forests. The collaborative model embodied by the CBFA could play a role in advancing these discussions moving forward.