Protect and Restore Canada’s Great Forests
About our work: Climate and logging
Forests are crucial in fighting climate change, stemming biodiversity loss and creating liveable cities. It follows that we need to keep careful track of how much forest we cut down, and how much carbon is released in the process. But Canada manipulates its emissions numbers to allow big logging companies to destroy the forests for their own profits, hiding emissions roughly equal to the oil sands.
Something doesn’t add up! → Read our latest logging emissions report
Nature Canada believes that Canada needs a new vision for industrial logging. Clear-cutting primary and old-growth boreal forest and replacing it with monocultures of spruce is not only bad for the forest, but also bad for international trade. The European Union now requires companies who sell forest products in that jurisdiction to prove that those products are not tied to deforestation or forest degradation.
It’s time that Canada recognizes the true impact of the logging industry on both climate and biodiversity. We can also make a conscious effort to permanently repair the damage that has already been done by planting new forests that are diverse and permanently protected.
About our work: Reforestation
Newly planted trees — no matter how small and spindly — do a great job of seeding hope, which is why Nature Canada takes reforestation so seriously.
We are working to ensure that Canada’s cities and towns have increased tree canopy, and that our near-urban and rural settings have additional and more ecologically sound forests. One of our big goals is to ensure that everybody can access treescapes and enjoy their benefits. In 2022, we released the report Canada’s Urban Forests, Bringing the Canopy to All, which argued that tree cover is not evenly distributed in urban areas. Treescapes tend to be more common in white and higher income neighbourhoods rather than in racialized and marginalized areas. That report launched our country-wide initiative to make a common good truly common through our tree equity work.
People need trees! → Find out more about tree equity… and what you can do
Trees not only hold up the world; they hold up neighbourhoods. That’s why our reforestation program has supported local groups across the country such as Calgary Climate Hub, Habitations L’Équerre, Seedlings Forest Education (Victoria, BC), and the Old North East Neighbourhood Association (London, ON) in their efforts to plant trees as ecological infrastructure and a climate solution.
About our work: Two Billion Trees
Large-scale tree-planting could help address climate change in a significant way while also strengthening biodiversity. This was the principle behind the federal government’s Two Billion Trees (TB2) program, announced in 2021. It’s a great idea — but right from the beginning, Nature Canada wanted to ensure that trees were planted with biodiversity and climate at the forefront. Specifically, we were concerned that the program contained loopholes that allowed mature trees to be commercially logged.In June 2023, Nature Canada brought together over 100 nature, climate, faith, and Indigenous groups to call for a more accessible and biodiversity-friendly Two Billion Trees Program. The future of 2BT is uncertain, but as long as any federal tree-planting effort continues, Nature Canada will continue to push for “the right trees, in the right places, for the right reasons.”
About our work: Protected Areas
Saving our forests means creating protected areas like national parks or Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs). Through our advocacy work, Nature Canada has helped protect countless hectares of land and water in Canada. We are also working with several Indigenous groups, including the Cree Nations of James Bay and Sakitawak Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (Saskatchewan), to help protect the boreal forest and their stewardship traditions.
Forests are one of our strongest defenses against climate change (which is causing more frequent and severe wildfires). But wildfires themselves are one big reason why we are losing our forests. We call on the federal government to deliver a pan-Canadian Wildfire Emergency Response Plan that:
● Protects communities
● Advances Indigenous cultural practices and sovereignty
● Supports the transition to ecologically sustainable forestry
● Accelerates action to reduce GHG emissions from all sectors of the Canadian economy.