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How the Logging Industry's Unregulated JULY 2020 R: 20-07-B REPORT THE LOGGING LOOPHOLE: HOW THE LOGGING INDUSTRY’S UNREGULATED CARBON EMISSIONS UNDERMINE CANADA’S CLIMATE GOALS AUTHOR Jennifer Skene ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to express deep gratitude to all the people who contributed their time, expertise, and talents to this report. Special thanks to Dale Marshall for his numerous reviews and tremendously constructive feedback and to Graham Saul and Teagan Yaremchuk for their expert advice and continuous support. Thanks as well to Anthony Swift, who oversaw the conceptualization and creation of this report, and to Tina Swanson for her thoughtful review. Leah Stecher's editing, guidance, and endless patience were, as always, indispensable and tremendously appreciated. This communication and release of this report would also would not have been possible without the tireless dedication of Margie Kelly, Lauren Gonzales, Barbara Hayes, Alex Almendrades, and Andrew Aziz. The author would also like to thank the many people who reviewed various iterations of this report and provided invaluable feedback: Shelley Vinyard, Courtenay Lewis, Ashley Jordan, Danielle Droitsch, Liz Barratt- Brown, Brendan Guy, Josh Axelrod, Sasha Stashwick, Jeff Wells, Jay Malcolm, Dominick DellaSalla, Florence Daviet, Keith Kisselle, Julee Boan, and Tim Gray. Environmental Defence Canada gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Metcalf Foundation. About NRDC NRDC is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Montana, and Beijing. Visit us at nrdc.org. About Environmental Defence Canada Environmental Defence Canada is a leading Canadian advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities. Visit us at environmentaldefence.ca. About Nature Canada Over the past 80 years, Nature Canada has helped protect over 110 million acres of parks and wildlife areas in Canada and countless species that depend on this habitat. Today, Nature Canada represents a network comprised of over 100,000 supporters and engages a community of more than 900 nature organizations across the country. It is focused on effecting change on issues of national significance, including wilderness protection and endangered species, and encouraging people to embrace a culture of conservation in their everyday lives. Visit us at naturecanada.ca. NRDC Chief Communications Officer:Michelle Egan NRDC Managing Directors of Communications: Lisa Goffredi and Jenny Powers NRDC Publications Director: Mary Annaïse Heglar NRDC Policy Publications Editor: Leah Stecher Design and Production: www.suerossi.com Cover: © River Jordan for NRDC © Natural Resources Defense Council 2020 Table of Contents Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................................4 The Canadian Boreal Forest’s Global Climate Importance .....................................................................................6 Intact and Primary Forests ....................................................................................................................................................6 Industrial Logging’s Climate Impact .......................................................................................................................7 Boreal Caribou ........................................................................................................................................................................7 Logging Scars: Deforestation’s Significant, But Hidden, Legacy ...........................................................................................8 The Reduced Value of Second-Growth Forests ......................................................................................................................9 Wildfire ...................................................................................................................................................................................9 Shortfalls in Canada’s Climate Policies ................................................................................................................. 11 Canada’s Carbon Reporting ...................................................................................................................................................11 Forest Carbon Regulations ....................................................................................................................................................12 Assumptions About Harvested Wood Products ....................................................................................................................12 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................................................14 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................................................15 Introduction While the international community has struggled to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, forests around the world have been buying us time to transition to clean, renewable-energy economies. Forests act as giant carbon vaults, storing away in their wood, leaves, and soil more carbon than is found in all currently accessible coal, oil, and gas reserves combined.1 Forests also continuously add to this carbon vault and in recent decades have absorbed nearly one-third of the greenhouse gases we release each year.2 The global scientific community has made it clear we must limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (C) in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,3 and that doing so will require not just ending our reliance on fossil fuels, but also protecting intact and primary forests’ ability to store and absorb carbon.4 The Canadian boreal forest, which comprises a quarter and its representatives are overselling the forest’s capacity of the world’s remaining intact forestland5 and is part to regenerate, misrepresenting forest carbon dynamics, of the most carbon-dense forest biome on the planet,6 is and omitting critical portions of its life-cycle analysis in particularly key to achieving a 1.5 °C pathway. In its soils order to present a narrative of climate sustainability18 that and vegetation, the Canadian boreal stores twice as much science is increasingly refuting.19 carbon as the world’s oil reserves.7 It is central to global Unlike fossil fuel industries that must be phased out over carbon regulation,8 making its protection and management the course of a few decades, a sustainable forest industry a matter of global importance. Yet each year, industrial can align with keeping warming below 1.5 °C. However, logging erodes the Canadian boreal’s value for the climate, given its current rate, intensity, and extent, today’s cutting down more than 400,000 hectares of the forest9 to industrial logging is incompatible with a goal of maximizing turn it into toilet paper, newsprint, lumber, and biofuels.10 the boreal forest’s critical role in carbon storage and To put this in perspective, Canada falls just behind Brazil threatens long-term, global climate repercussion.20 and Russia in terms of annual intact forest landscape loss, even when losses caused by wildfires are removed11—with The Canadian federal government has signaled an 60 percent of this loss occurring in areas leased by logging eagerness to become a leader in tackling land-based carbon companies.12 More than 90 percent of this logging is in emissions, including taking advantage of the boreal’s unique the form of clearcutting,13 a practice in which the logging characteristics and benefits through nature-based climate operation removes nearly all the trees from a given area.14 solutions,21 which use the value of natural ecosystems to address climate change.22 As a flagship part of this effort, Industrial logging practices are undermining the boreal the federal government committed to planting two billion forest’s value for the climate and resulting in significant net additional trees over 10 years as a means of meeting annual emissions.15 When this forest is logged, it releases global emissions targets.23 Additionally, the federal stored carbon from its vegetation and soils, and until it government has pledged to protect 30 percent of Canada’s regenerates, it loses its capacity to continue absorbing lands by 2030.24 These are meaningful and encouraging the amount of carbon it held prior to being cut, creating measures that position Canada to lead on nature-based a carbon deficit.16 Thus, just like building a new polluting climate solutions and have an additional benefit of factory or drilling a new oil or gas well, industrial logging in addressing global species collapse. the boreal has long-term climate impacts.17 However, the government has left significant policy gaps Nevertheless, the Canadian logging industry has around mitigating the logging industry’s emissions and consistently downplayed its impact on the global climate, protecting intact forests—both crucial to achieving its as well as on species that live in the boreal. The industry climate
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