OTTAWA, (Reuters) – Most of Canada’s largest forestry companies announced a groundbreaking deal with environmental groups yesterday that will restrict logging in the country’s vast northern forests.
The agreement covers 170 million acres (690,000 square km) — an area nearly twice the size of Germany — and ends years of battles over logging in Canada’s massive boreal forest, which environmentalists say helps fight global warming by absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide.
The forestry companies will stop all logging immediately on 75 million acres to protect woodland caribou herds under pressure from development.
The two sides will then spend three years working out which restrictions to impose on logging in the remaining 95 million acres.
In return, as the agreement comes into force, the green groups will end international “Do not buy” campaigns against Canadian lumber. The deal took two years to negotiate.
