A report released last week by Environment Defence Canada and several other other non-profits ahead of COP26 suggests that pollution from Canada’s logging sector is not less than 80 megatonnes higher than what the industry reports.
Eighty megatonnes is roughly reminiscent of the annual emissions from all of the buildings in Canada.
The report said Canada is taking a “biased approach” in its emissions reporting by excluding emissions from logging roads or damaged forests but including emissions reductions from undisturbed forests which have never been logged.
Scott Jackson, director of conservation biology with the Forest Products Association of Canada, said that Canada is a “global leader” in forest certification and sustainable sourcing of forest products.
“We’re fortunate that we’ve been tracking deforestation in Canada for many years,” Jackson said. “Now we have the statistics, the information to point out that we’ve been very successful at reducing the realm of deforestation within the country.”
Jackson pushed back against suggestions that Canada is underreporting the consequences of clear-cutting and logging.
“Forestry in Ontario and in Canada could be very heavily monitored and reported, and that features a variety of third-party audits,” Jackson said.
Global News reached out to Natural Resources Canada for response to allegations it’s underreporting emissions from its forestry industry but didn’t receive a response.
