SHOULD U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS CONTROL OUR BOREAL?

Pew Environmental Group crafted a strategy to conserve the boreal forests of Canada.  They saw our publicly owned forest as "a ripe, untapped opportunity". They launched their campaign in 1999 with a goal to protect 100 million acres by 2010.

Letter to:

The Hon. Linda Jeffrey, Minister of Natural Resources for the Province of Ontario

September 20, 2010

Dear Linda,

I appreciate the time and effort you and your staff took to reply to my letter.

I look at this map of Ontario that you sent, with the seven operating pulp and paper mills (as of July 27, 2010), and I pray  that the Ontario Government offices are using Ontario made paper.

(I have a concern about foreign - backed special interest groups influencing provincial policy, so I filled Linda in on what I had read.)

The following is quoted from the Pew Trusts Web Site, Lessons Learned: Protecting the Boreal Forest, Spring 2008, Trust Magazine article. "Building on this early progress, the Environment program (now called the Pew Environment Group) continued its efforts in the United States, but also began to craft a conservation strategy for Canada's great boreal wilderness. This far-reaching expanse of publicly owned forest and taiga represented a particularly ripe, yet largely untapped, opportunity."
"In 1999 Environment staff launched a campaign to protect Canada's boreal forest, ultimately setting the goal of protecting 100 million acres of wilderness by 2010."

"From 1999 through to the end of the evaluation period in December 2006, approximately $35.4 million had been invested in Canadian Wilderness conservation, with major support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Lenfest Foundation." Pew Foundation has its own bank with over $4.2 billion.

From Pew's Milestones 2009, page 39:

"Prompted by Pew's work, the province of Manitoba creates a trust to support establishment of a World Heritage Site covering more than 10 million acres of pristine boreal forest. An additional 200 million acres in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec are expected to be designated as parks and refuges pending the fulfillment of previously made commitments."


{Those commitments could have referred to The Far North Act and Plan Nord}

The Crafty Plan

Continuing Pew's Lessons Learned:

" The Canadian Wilderness protection campaign also included an international public education effort designed to both raise awareness of the boreal as a region in need of protection and build on this recognition to generate additional public, industry and government enthusiasm for wilderness protection."

"The evaluation found that the international advocacy component was a necessary part of the strategy and provided evidence that this approach had been essential in securing industry agreements to manage approximately 116 million acres in accordance with the Forest Stewardship Council's sustainable forestry standards."

The evaluation did "suggest that the broad international campaign built infrastructure and awareness that could prove instrumental in bringing about future wilderness-protection gains."

From the FD Element advertising agency, case study : CBI
{ FD Element is the Canadian branch of FD International, a massive global advertising agency. Their new client is 'Power Up Canada, Ms ForestEthics new plaything.}

"The Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI), faced a number of communications challenges in their work, including the need to inform and motivate political decision -makers and business leaders about the value of socially responsible practices.  FD Element developed an integrated campaign to brand the region as "Canada's Boreal", framing and communication a coherent, compelling message.  We increased their reach and impact through strategic planning, message development and advertising in French and English that included print, television and on-line."  "Through disciplined targeting high impact creative (ads), the campaign delivered a unique and unifying message that helped set the stage for legislative action from the Governments of Canada and the province of Ontario." 

The FD Element also ran the David Suzuki Foundation "Sustainability Within a Generation " campaign. " The media plan focused efforts on Toronto, specifically airing in media outlets consumed by political activists."

I said in my letter: If The Far North Act is passed then you have again been manipulated by ENGOs into signing away our Northern future. {It did}

QUESTION

Given the recent experience with foreign-backed special interest groups influencing provincial policy, what steps are you, the Minister, taking to ensure that future policy initiatives better reflect the wishes and needs of Ontario's rural residents?

My friend in Norway says, "When you are preserving the forest too much you are not getting a living forest.  The existence of the living and active forests in Canada are maybe the most important reason for the possibility of building up Canada to a rich and modern society."

Amen.