PRESI MESSAGE

Fair deal needed
for all producers

by Dave Haggard

Much of the talk about the forest industry
over the next several months will be about
the Canada - U.S Softwood Lumber Agree-
ment which expires in March, 2001. There
will discussion about conflicting points of
view and which is the right position for
Canada to take on the issue.

One thing is becoming apparent to the
I.W.A. The diverse interests that are in gov-
ernments and in the forest industry across
this country will have a hard time coming up
with a unified position by the time the cur-
rent agreement expires.

Those who have quota under the current
agreement won't want to give it up and will
want more. Those who don't have it will
want to get it. Those currently not covered
will want to stay that way.

Our union recognizes that the current
deal allocates lumber quotas on a discrimi-
natory and arbitrary basis to some and not
others. Some provinces are not covered at all
and can ship unlimited amounts to the U.S.

The I.W.A.'s position is that Canadian
workers and their communities are better
served by free and fair trade in lumber. In

B.C., some compa-
nies that concen-
trated on Asian and
European markets
in the mid-90's ran
into a brick wall
when those mar-
kets collapsed and
they could not sell
to the U.S. without
quota. That is
patently unfair.

Today in the U.S.
there is a stronger
lobby for a plenti-
ful supply of wood
products with
dimensions and
quality specifica-
tions that Cana-
dian producers sup-
ply. Governments,
forest companies and labour have to work to
take advantage of this situation and get this
message across.

Any subsidy arguments that the U.S.
Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports against
lumber from B.C. will have to respond to
the fact that our stumpage costs and rolled-
up wood costs are among the highest any-
where.

At the same time that we are dealing
with American market, we can't forget other
global markets for our forest products.

Last year the I.W.A. asked the federal
government, which has jurisdiction over
international trade, to help market Cana-
dian forest products. After all, the forest

industry is Canada's
largest source of
export activity, creat-
ing some 380,000
direct jobs and worth
some $18 billion to the
country's GDP.

The feds have to
chip in with some
major resources to
help secure existing
markets and expand
into new ones.

We need to work
together to counter
damaging campaigns
and boycotts orches-
trated by radical green
groups.

We need to inform
customers in Europe
and Asia about the
great strides B.C. and the rest of the coun-
try has made in forest practices and forest
management.

We need to work together to develop and
implement fair certification standards for
forest products.

Canadian producers also need govern-
ment help in overcoming non-trade barriers
like the pine nematode restrictions in Europe
and building code standards in Japan. It's
time for action.

In short there is much that we can do.
Governments, industry and labour have a
lot to gain by working together and much to
lose if we don't. Without secure markets for
our products, after all, we all go home.

EANDS AND FORES:

Reality in forests
obscured by clouds

by Kim Pollock

| at stake and what the real choices are in

! | the debate over forestry. Too often those

|_| choices are obscured under clouds of

| rhetoric, false assumptions and a storm
tof claims and counter-claims.

Let’s start with what’s happened in the past
decade. In British Columbia and other parts of
Canada, we are making important progress.

In 1995, for instance, British Columbia initi-
ated a tough new Forest Practices Code. That
law and others passed have revolutionized
land-use planning and timber harvesting.

Since 1993, the area of parks and protected
areas has almost doubled, from about 6 to 12
percent, an area one third the size of Germany.
Included in that area are about 3 million
hectares of “low and medium elevation” forests.

B.C. has completed public participatory land-
use plans covering over 50 percent of the
(gee has completed a full round of Timber

upply Reviews, covering every Crown forest
and is now well into another.

Areas planted on Crown lands have exceeded
areas harvested by a total of over 140,000
hectares in the past decade while the average
size of cutblock openings has been reduced from
43.4 hectares in 1988 to 26.4 hectares in 1998.

In fact, the total area harvested dropped
from 270,000 hectares in 1988-9 to 173,000
hectares in 1997-8, while the total area replanted
has increased from 164,000 to 187,000 over the
same period.

Meanwhile, the area described as “not suffi-
ciently restocked” has been reduced from 1.9
million hectares in 1988-9 to 750,000 hectares
ten years later

Over 250,000 hectares have been designated
as northern spotted owl forests and an Identi-
fied Wildlife Program is setting aside areas for
other endangered species.

In spite of progress, however, we have not
been able to satisfy the international green
extreme groups, who continue to directly attack
and harass workers by: vicious sabotage of
machinery and equipment — often in ways that
endanger workers; dangerous and invasive

ades that risk accidents
or violence and spiking
of bridges, roads and
trees.

In addition, they con-
tinue to undermine our
access to international
markets, thus threaten-
ing our members’ liveli-
hoods and the local,
regional and national
economy through mar-
ket campaigns that use
distortions and black-
mail to gain support from
buyers of our products; boycotts; and interrup-
tion of transport and shipping.

Part of what troubles us is a growing sense
that no matter how much we change it will
never be enough. In fact, we get a strong sense

that the demands of the green groups keep
shifting and we are con-

hectare of wilderness advocated by the greens.
But we will probably prose the vast majority.

The question is, will the Valhalla Wilderness
Society, WCWC, Sierra Club and CPAWS hon-
our their 1989 commitment to tell the world
that B.C. is a “a world renown example of man
living with nature.”

Do they still support sustainable resource
extraction on the remaining 87% of the land
base — or have the goal posts shifted?

In addition to endorsing the Valhalla Wilder-
ness Society map, WCWC regularly publishes
reports and newsletters identifying new envi-
ronmental hotspots.

A brief look at some of the WCWC demands
between the years 1987 and 1992 shows just
how many have been achieved. In 1987, for
instance, they identified 33 areas for park cre-
ation. Out of 33 WCWC park proposals put for-
ward between 1987 and 1992, 25 are parks
today. An additional seven have been recom-
mended for park des-

sequently running ona
treadmill.
Environmentalists con-
tinue to campaign and
raise funds in B.C.
because it’s successful.
Let me tell you what I
mean. In 1989, the
Valhalla Wilderness
Society published a map
of the province entitled
“British Columbia’s
Endangered Wilder-

“Tt seems that no matter how
much we change, it will
never be enough — the greens
keep shifting and we are
running on a treadmill.”

ignation by planning
processes.

And, the other one
— Meares Island —
is currently under
moratorium pending
the outcome of Nuu-
Chah-Nulth Treaty
negotiations.

nm my view, these
examples provide a
pretty clear illustra-
tion of how B.C. has
responded to the pub-

ness.” That map advo-
cated preservation of 13% of the provincial land
base in wilderness parks. It would have increased
B.C.’s protected areas from 5.25% of the land
base to 13%.

The map’s creators wrote: “Surely an ideal of |
realistic balance can be found which includes all
of this: Expansion of the park system to 13% of |
B.C.; legislative protection for complete protec-
tion of parks; and a sustainable level of resource
extraction on the remaining 87% of the land.” It
added that by agreeing to these changes B.C.
could become “a world renown (sic) example of
man living with nature.”

In addition to the Valhalla Wilderness Soci-
ety, this vision was endorsed by Western Canada
Wilderness Committee, Canadian Parks and
Wilderness Society and Sierra Club.

Today, not quite a decade later, most of the
large wilderness areas identified for protection
are parks and recreation areas. Together they
total about 2.4 million hectares or 2.5% of the
province. Dozens of smaller areas identified
have been protected and many more are cur-
rently under study.

stunts in our workplaces; logging road block-

British Columbia is unlikely to protect every

lic campaigns. So, how
have environmental activists responded to
what they might claim to be their success? __

Remember that in 1989, these groups said
completion of the 13% wilderness vision woul
make B.C. “a world renown example of man liv-
ing with nature.”

But their response today? The environmental
activists have upgraded their demands for
wilderness preservation. WCWC now calls the
12% preservation goal “A death sentence for
most of the remaining wilderness in B.C.” They
add that “a 40% protected areas network in
B.C. would have a chance of sustaining life.”
Greenpeace also seeks 40 percent protection
in B.C.

And they’ve exported their B.C. campaign to
the international marketplace — San Francisco,
New York, London, Frankfurt and even Japan.

And so it goes. Is it any wonder we have a
hard time taking seriously anything the inter-
national green groups say or do?

Kim Pollock is the Director of I.W.A. CANADA’s
Environment and Land-Use Department.

4/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2000

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