Canada, home to a massive boreal forest, lobbied to limit U.S., EU anti-deforestation bills

Canada is facing international criticism for undermining efforts to protect one of the world's last primary forests — our own.

Jennifer Skene, natural climate solutions policy manager for the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), accuses the Canadian government of a "very aggressive" lobbying campaign against the inclusion of the boreal forest in New York and California deforestation-free procurement bills.

In the original drafts, the bills would have prevented those states from buying products that are tied to deforestation or forest degradation from boreal or tropical forests directly or through their supply chains.

But Skene said, "Canada has been trying to remove itself from those same sustainability thresholds."

Canada's boreal forest stretches from Newfoundland and Labrador to northeastern British Columbia and the Yukon, and covers 270 million hectares. It is a major carbon sink and provides important habitat for tens of millions of migratory birds and endangered species, such as caribou and grizzly bears.

Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, a former New York state senator and co-sponsor of the New York Deforestation-Free Procurement Act, says he was lobbied by Canadian officials who argued that Canada's forestry is sustainable and Canada should not be included in the bill.

He remembers hearing repeatedly from the federal and provincial governments, who felt the bill "was targeting Canada and targeting the lumber industry there and, you know, that they were already sustainable enough and so there was no need for it."

Reichlin-Melnick disagrees.

CBC News obtained letters from the Alberta premier at the time, Jason Kenney, and Alberta Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Devin Dreeshen indicating the type of lobbying Reichlin-Melnick describes.

For example, in a letter dated May 20, 2022, Kenney wrote the governor of New York with "deep concern" that if the bill passed, it would create "an unjustified, non-tariff barrier to Canadian forest products and forest risk commodities, and threaten jobs and supply chains of sustainably sourced products."

Kenney noted Canada has "world-leading sustainable forest management practices" with a "framework that prevents forest degradation and deforestation, as defined by the United Nations."

According to the journal Science Advances, published in 2017, Canada ranks third globally for intact forest loss, behind only Russia and Brazil.

Skene says Canada clear cuts hundreds of thousands of hectares of boreal annually.