The most valuable forests in Canada are being cut down at an alarming rate for profit.
Recent studies show that only three per cent of B.C.’s old-growth trees remain. With every tree cut down, the unique biodiversity forest stands support and their vital role in climate regulation, water conservation, and many other ecological processes also disappear.
It is not at all possible to sustainably log 800-year-old trees. Once gone, they are gone forever. Yet, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has been certifying old-growth logging across Canada as “sustainable” since 1996.
This scam is perpetuated by CSA’s Sustainable Forestry Management standard certification, which does not prescribe or require that logging meet any definition of sustainability. This misleads consumers into believing that wood from CSA-certified logging practices is preferable because it is more sustainable. It also skews competition in the marketplace by disadvantaging legitimately sustainable products that then appear more expensive and less attractive by comparison.
It is time CSA is held accountable for leading a scam that has lined the pockets of logging companies while we witness the destruction of B.C.’s last ancient trees in real time.
