Canada’s Competition Bureau to probe forestry industry ads on sustainable management – National | 24CA News
The Competition Bureau has opened an inquiry to see if forestry business claims of sustainable administration on huge stretches of Canadian woodlands are false promoting.
The inquiry, introduced late final 12 months, is available in response to a criticism filed by the environmental regulation agency Ecojustice on behalf of eight environmental teams. Ecojustice says that forest business advertisements claiming the Sustainable Forestry Initiative units rigorous harvesting requirements are dishonest and deceptive.
“The (standard) does not prescribe, require, assure, command, mandate, or in any form certify sustainable forest management,” says the criticism filed to the bureau. “It allows aspirations, stated intentions, and programs to be conflated with actual outcomes.”
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Jason Metnick, spokesman for the initiative, denied these allegations Wednesday.
“(The initiative) has a forest management standard that is based on objective performance measures and indicators,” he stated.
At stake is Canada’s mostly used technique of assuring shoppers that the wooden and paper merchandise they purchase are harvested in accordance with trendy ecological rules. It is promoted by the Forest Products Association of Canada and purports to certify sustainable forestry on greater than 120 million hectares.
But the Ecojustice criticism calls on the Competition Bureau to power the business to retract these claims and pay a $10 million positive.
It says the initiative makes use of imprecise language that’s too woolly to create any form of measurable normal. Terms like “rare,” “ecologically important,” “significant” and “at risk” usually are not outlined.
Ecojustice says corporations are allowed to outline for themselves what constitutes an old-growth forest. The initiative defines long-term as as much as 80 years _ too quick to measure actual sustainability and extra in keeping with harvest schedules.
The system permits forests to be transformed from one kind to a different with “appropriate justification.” Ecojustice says whereas the system suggests clearcuts be restricted, it permits too many exceptions.
As nicely, it criticizes the initiative for specializing in course of. The criticism says the system assumes that if enough insurance policies are in place, the outcomes on the bottom will likely be good.
“(Sustainable Forestry Initiative) employs no means of assuring that certification to the SFI standard achieves sustainable forest management,” the criticism says.
Ecojustice factors on the market are not any instances of certification being withdrawn for non-compliance.
“In the absence of mandatory requirements, there is no standard against which performance could be judged inadequate,” it argues.
Metnick stated the criticism relies on outdated and deceptive data and that the usual does include particular targets.
“We have ? 114 indicators that speak to both an outcomes-based as well as a systems-based approach,” he stated. “We believe we are sound and based off of science.”
Metnick stated certification is simply awarded to corporations which have handed a third-party evaluation. Companies are audited yearly, which features a subject inspection element, he stated.
“The auditor will go into the forest and make sure that what the organization says they are doing is backed up by the field visit.”
The Competition Bureau inquiry, which isn’t performed in public, has the facility to make use of the courts to compel proof.
A spokesman for the bureau stated the Ecojustice criticism was assessed earlier than the choice to carry an inquiry was made.
“When the bureau receives such a request, the information provided is reviewed to determine whether it meets the technical requirements of the section,” stated Yves Chartrand in an e-mail.
“If so, the bureau is obliged under the (Competition) Act to launch a formal investigation to determine the facts.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
