Quebec forests are overharvested,

some cutting should be reduced


Source: Copyright 2004, Canadian Press
Date: December 15, 2004
Byline: JOCELYNE RICHER
Originally posted at: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20041215/ca_pr_on_bu/que_forestry_report_2

---

QUEBEC (CP) - Reaction from industry and environmentalists was mixed as a commission said Quebec＇s forests are being overharvested and recommended Tuesday that the provincial government reduce cutting of fir and some species of pine by 20 per cent.
The forestry industry in Quebec has to change the way it operates or face a decline in trees and jobs, the commission said. "We are not at the edge of the abyss," commission chairman Guy Coulombe told a news conference.
"(But) if changes aren＇t made, we will continue to be headed for a wall."
The commission recommended that Quebec appoint a chief forester to oversee the entire industry for the province.
It＇s among 81 recommendations included in 307-page report aimed at making major changes to the forestry system within three years.
But reducing the harvest of trees by at least 10 per cent would directly threaten more than 10,000 jobs, said the Quebec Forestry Industry Council.
"The impact is real, it＇s 10,000 jobs," council president Georges Courteau said in a telephone interview.
The industry is one of Quebec＇s main employers, responsible for 150,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Forest, Wildlife and Parks Minister Pierre Corbeil said he wants to develop a response to the report as soon as possible.
Corbeil said he plans to consider the recommendations as a whole rather than choose from among them.
But Courteau said the government must renounce the global approach advocated by the commission because it fails to take into account regional needs.
The numerous proposed changes must be analysed by evaluating the real impact on the forests of changing the law, he added.
For ecological groups, the commission＇s report doesn＇t go far enough.
"The report doesn＇t reassure is at all," said Henri Jacob, spokesman for Action boreale.
"We have exploited our resources and we will pay for that. We have pressured the government to adopt a plan to change the vision of forests because it＇s not just about two-by-fours or paper."
He said the report remains too vague on the essential question of calculating the available forest.
The report said Quebec has to change the way it evaluates the size of forests and stop allocating cutting rights by volume. The province also has to take into account tree quality and accessibility.
Greenpeace welcomed the idea of managing the forests based on respecting ecosystems more than on the needs of industry.
"That marks an important direction," said Steven Guilbault, spokesman for the environmental organization.
"We have always managed the forest like a fire sale, without taking into account either the needs of the forest as an ecosystem or the needs of the fauna and flora that also depend on it."