Canadian Forest Industry and Environmental Groups Sign Conservation Agreement

On Wednesday, May 19, 2010, twenty-one of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) member companies and nine environmental organizations unveiled the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. The Agreement will conserve significant areas of Canada's Boreal Forest, managing it in a more responsible manner

What does this mean for printers?
Canopy, ForestEthics, and Greenpeace will be suspending their “Do Not Buy” campaigns against participating FPAC member companies and their customers while the agreement is being implemented. There have been some well-known “Do Not Buy” campaigns against highly visible brands such as Sears/Lands End, Victoria’s Secret, and Kimberly-Clark due to their paper purchasing practices for the production of catalogs, direct mail, and other paper products. The suspension of these campaigns translates into relief for the end users of the products.

This is good news for the printing industry, as the “Do Not Buy” campaigns impact their businesses directly. This agreement will allow print customers to feel more secure that they will not come under attack for using paper from the participating FPAC members.

The Dead Tree Edition, a blog offering comments related to the production and distribution of publications stated the following after the announcement:

It’s surprising enough that the former enemies signed a deal involving forestry practices and conservation for an area of the Canadian boreal forest larger than Texas.

Even more stunning is that radical environmental groups like Greenpeace and ForestEthics signed an agreement that calls for “policies and investments that improve the competitiveness of the Canadian forest sector” and “improved prosperity of the Canadian forest sector and the communities that depend on it.”

The agreement also recognizes the legitimacy of the industry-backed Sustainable Forestry Initiative in addition to the rival Forest Stewardship Council.

To learn more about the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement visit www.canadianborealforestagreement.com.

This environmental update has been provided by Printing Industries of America. For more information about Printing Industries of America’s sustainability tools and resources, visit www.printing.org/ehs or call 800-910-4283.