Historic day for Canada's environmental movement

A significant shift has happened.
Logging has been one of the biggest targets of Canada's environmental movement throughout the past decades. The environmental movement (Greenpeace, CPAWS, Forest Ethics) has won a huge victory today, with such successes as getting the major forestry industries to preserve a giant tract of Boreal Forest and to meet FSC standards across the board.
That level of change could not have happened within the industry itself. In the Canadian political climate, it also would not have happened through government. Here is an example of what change advocacy organization can bring - and when everyone stops to think about it, how environmentalists and corporations can do better for the economy and workers when they decide on a sustainable path together.

See below:


Loggers, green groups reach truce

Canada’s long-time adversaries poised to announce peace pact, switch to partnership model

Martin Mittelstaedt
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, May. 17, 2010 1:50PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, May. 18, 2010 10:54AM EDT
Canada’s long-running war in the woods, which has spanned decades and involved bitter skirmishes in just about every area of the country, may be over for good.

Forest companies and environmentalists are poised to announce a historic truce Tuesday. The deal will not only stop the fighting, but will require the two sides to eventually do something once thought improbable: Tree huggers and tree cutters are to switch from being sworn enemies to something resembling partners.

Under the pact, environmental groups will suspend boycott campaigns directed against Canadian forest products companies, a major irritant to the industry. Meanwhile, forest companies will not undertake any environmentally unfriendly actions, such as logging in ecologically sensitive boreal forests inhabited by endangered caribou.

If the industry attains specified conservation performance goals, environmental groups will go beyond the truce and publicly help brand the Canadian industry’s products as green. This will give the industry a marketing advantage against companies from countries that turn a blind eye to illegal harvesting and other harmful forestry practices.

Read more here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/loggers-green-groups-reach-truce/article1571684/