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FOREST STEWARDSHIP
COUNCIL OF CANADA (FSC) FOREST OPERATION CERTIFICATION PROGRAM AND SASKATCHEWAN;
A PROPOSAL FOR CONSIDERATION
BY FSC AND GOVERNMENT
The FSC Criteria and Indicators provide a sound basis for forest certification
across Canada and in Saskatchewan. The National Boreal Standards Process
has invited regional involvement in the development of the Canadian version
of Criteria, Indicators and Verifiers for the FSC Program of
third party forest certification.
A study of the May 21, 2002 "Forest Stewardship Council of
Canada Working Group, NATIONAL BOREAL STANDARD Discussion Draft"
document has led a group of Saskatchewan reviewers to propose the following
general considerations for Saskatchewan.
- In Saskatchewan nearly all of the forest eligible for certification
by FSC standards is held by the Crown on behalf of the public of Saskatchewan.
- Commercial use of Saskatchewan's forests is by way of various FMA
lease agreements between the Government of Saskatchewan and various
commercial enterprises.
- While some of these enterprises are large operations such as Weyerhaeuser
Canada, other forest operations are small scale.
- Only the very largest commercial lease holders could be expected to
meet the certification Criteria and Indicators required by
FSC Canada, and as a consequence, only part of the forest operations
are likely to meet these FSC standards with the subsequent benefits
to the businesses, to the community and to the environment.
- The Government of Saskatchewan, through its Forest Management Area
Land Use Planning Committees and Environment and Resource Departments,
is already engaged to a significant degree in much of the work required
to meet FSC certification standards.
- It appears to be a reasonable consideration for Saskatchewan, through
its governmental processes, to strive to meet FSC certification standards
on all of its crown forest lands, and then to require all lease holders
to comply with these criteria as a condition of becoming a licenced
operator in the forest. In addition any lease holder on Crown forest
lands should be obligated to follow the same quality of forest operation
on all of their non-crown forest operations within Saskatchewan. This
latter consideration would, in effect, extend the same kind of forest
protection to a majority of privately held forest lands since many of
these parcels are harvested by companies that also operate with leases
on Crown lands.
- Such a "global approach" would ensure forest practices in all of the
Boreal Plain and Boreal Shield in Saskatchewan that meet the strict
and desirable standards of the FSC, instead of a piece-meal process
where initiatives to meet certification standards are left to individual
commercial lease holders. With the variety of forest certification standards
available to the forest industry, we could not expect any uniform high
level of environmental, economic and socially desirable standards to
be applied.
- Without a uniform certification standard that applies to ALL Saskatchewan
forest products, Saskatchewan forest producers will fail to gain the
universal recognition for high production standards that would be able
to be achieved by a consistent and universal certification applied to
all Crown forests. The international recognition of high quality forest
practices that comes with FSC Certification, generates economic benefits
and environmental benefits that are much more likely to survive the
impacts of changing governments and changing political and short-term
budget considerations.
- Much of the certification data collection and background work is already
underway by different Saskatchewan Government agencies, and it would
be logical for this to be brought to completion with the aim of meeting
FSC requirements. This would be to the gain of all forest operators,
to the forest communities, and to the whole provincial community. The
people of Saskatchewan depend on healthy forests and sound forest operations
for so much of the quality of life we experience and for much of our
economic base.
- We urge FSC Canada to rethink its traditional approach of encouraging
the certification of individual commercial forest operations (which
makes sense where forests are privately owned as they are in much of
the world), and to work to encourage the government of Saskatchewan
to act as the sole owner/steward of these forests, and to seek certification
of the entire public forest area of Saskatchewan. (Since FSC standards
require effective consultation with, and support of Aboriginal and other
affected communities, a FSC certification process would respect the
claims and concerns of these communities.) This would be a significant
win / win / win situation for the FSC, for the forest industries in
Saskatchewan, and for the Saskatchewan public interest.
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This document represents the general conclusions reached by members of
the Forest Fringe Citizens' Coalition and the Prince Albert Earth Advocates
who are members of the Saskatchewan Eco Network, whose good services facilitated
our involvement in the FSC document study. Comments relative to specific
Criteria, Indicators or verifiers will follow in a separate communication
from the Forest Fringe Citizens' Coalition. It is our understanding that
other Saskatchewan-based environmental groups have not yet concluded their
study of the FSC Draft Documents and will not be ready to add their comments
to this document in time to meet FSC deadlines. As a consequence, this
document is being forwarded in its current form to the following:
Forest Stewardship Council of Canada, attention Marc Thibault, National
Boreal Standards coordinator mthibault@fsccanada.org
Government of Saskatchewan, Minister Environment, Hon. Buckley Belanger
, bbelanger@mla.legassembly.sk.ca
Government of Saskatchewan, Deputy Minister of Environment, Terry Scott
TScott@serm.gov.sk.ca
Saskatchewan
Party Environment Critic, Carl Kwiatkowski,
ckwiatkowski@mla.legassembly.sk.ca
Darryl
Wiberg, Sask Party MLA for Sask Rivers, d.wiberg@sk.sympatico.ca
Liberal
Party of Saskatchewan, Leader, David Karwacki , david@starproduce.com
Jack
Hillson, MLA Battlefords, jhillson@mla.legassembly.sk.ca
New
Green Alliance Party of Saskatchewan, Leader, Ben Webster, redland09@hotmail.com
Submitted
by Gerald Regnitter on behalf of the Forest Fringe Citizens' Coalition,
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