Environmentalists, loggers seek consensus as Boreal Forest Agreement hits reset

OTTAWA – A ground-breaking co-operative experiment between environmental groups and the forest industry is hoping to hit the reset button this fall with a series of promised agreements.

The three-year-old Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement appeared to be coming apart at the seams last spring after two major environmental groups quit and negotiations with Resolute Forest Products reacheda stalemate.

But executive director Aran O’Carroll says the remaining signatories to the 2010 agreement agreed over the summer to recommit to finding common ground in the development and preservation of Canada’s boreal forest.

An agreement in principle for a vast tract of forest in northeastern Ontario is awaiting implementation by the Ontario government, and O’Carroll says other deals in Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan are in the works.

Bruce Lourie of the Ivey Foundation, which helps fund the participation of a number of environmental groups in the agreement, says neither conservationists nor industry want to go back to the days when they warred over forestry practices.

Canada has about a third of the world’s boreal forest and getting co-operation on its management between environmentalists and loggers is seen as a potential model for other resource sectors, including oil and gas.