Leading ENGOs call on Canada to address forest degradation & Defining Forest Degradation in Canada

Biodiversity and climate crises deeply entwined  (SEE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE) 

[Also Defining Forest Degradation in Canada - Article Here)
Reposted from the David Suzuki Foundation:

Canada cannot deliver on its global commitments to halt and reverse land degradation by 2030 unless it first accurately defines forest degradation, a coalition of leading environmental organizations working in Canada says. Today seven organizations released a science-based definition to spur urgently needed action.

Canada’s commitment to halt and reverse the degradation of forest ecosystems by 2030 is an important part of the global effort to address the biodiversity and climate crises. However, while forest degradation is a scientifically grounded and internationally recognized issue, Canada has yet to articulate a credible framework to identify and eliminate the degradation that continues to occur not only in what remains of primary, old-growth and other high-integrity forests, but also within the wider managed forest.

At present, Canada tracks rates of deforestation — the conversion of natural forests to another use — but does not track domestic forest degradation, of which industrial logging practices are a leading cause. As scientists have articulated, when a forest is degraded, its ability to provide critical ecosystem services such as climate mitigation, wildlife habitat and water filtration, diminishes.

There is clear evidence that industrial logging degrades forests in Canada. For example, boreal woodland caribou, which require large expanses of mature and interconnected intact forests to survive, are currently threatened with extinction across the country due, primarily, to a legacy of disturbance from industrial activities including logging. Logging has so significantly degraded old-growth forests in British Columbia that the spotted owls that used to live there are now considered functionally extinct.

See rest of the article here!