Canadian forest deal at risk

摘要

For conservationists, the promise seems almost too good to be true - and some worry that it is. The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, a deal between the forestry industry and environmental groups, aims to set aside nearly 30 million hectares of northern wilderness and subject a further 42 million to strict tree-harvesting standards. Unveiled in May 2010 (see Nature 465,279; 2010), it would be the single biggest forest-protection deal ever, and has been portrayed by participants as a model of cooperation. At a briefing sponsored by the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC on 9 March, Avrim Lazar, president of the Forest Products Association of Canada in Ottawa, lauded former antagonists for "working together on how to meet the needs of humanity without trashing the environment, our own nest".