Abitibi-Consolidated and WWF-Canada announce new joint forestry conservation agreement

Abitibi-Consolidated and WWF-Canada will work in partnership to identify High Conservation Value Forests (HCVFs) within specific Abitibi-Consolidated woodlands in Canada. This project was initiated in order to identify appropriate areas for the management and protection of HCVFs. Successful completion of this project will lead to the use of new forest management processes over the entire 18 million hectares of Abitibi-Consolidated-licensed forests, an achievement that would ensure native plant and animal species, such as the now-threatened woodland caribou, have healthy boreal habitat in which to thrive.

HCVFs can range in size from a small stand of trees that are critical local breeding grounds for endangered species, to whole forest tracts necessary for the survival of wide-ranging species. According to a set of agreed-upon standards, HCVFs are defined as critically important environmental and social forests (see backgrounder).

”Abitibi-Consolidated is committed to the sustainability of the natural resources in its care,” said President and CEO, John W. Weaver. “We’re very pleased to be working with WWF-Canada to integrate environmental, social and economic considerations in this project, identifying HCVFs and candidate areas for protection within our operations. Ultimately, the objective will be to lead to our organizations to submit a joint proposals for protected areas to the provincial governments”.

Monte Hummel, President of World Wildlife Fund Canada, notes that, “These efforts will help WWF meet our goal of establishing a network of protected areas, especially in Quebec and Ontario. I’m very pleased to see the initiative and commitment to this process from Abitibi-Consolidated, and I’m happy to bring the expertise WWF-Canada has developed to make this assessment possible. In the end, what we learn from this project can be applied to forestry operations across Canada using a standardized and tested HCVF toolkit”.

The partnership agreement, signed by Abitibi-Consolidated and WWF-Canada, sets out a timeline and process for the completion of projects on Abitibi-Consolidated’s forest management units in the Saguenay region of Quebec. WWF-Canada will provide its biodiversity and HCVF technical expertise; Abitibi-Consolidated will coordinate logistics, perform a forest and territorial analysis, and draft detailed reports on findings.

Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. is the world’s leading producer of newsprint and value-added paper as well as a major producer of wood products, generating sales of $5.1 billion in 2002. With 16,000 employees, the Company does business in more than 70 countries. Responsible for the forest management of 18 million hectares, Abitibi-Consolidated is committed to the sustainability of the natural resources in its care. The Company is also the world’s largest recycler of newspapers and magazines, serving 17 metropolitan areas with more than 10,000 Paper Retriever® collection points. Abitibi-Consolidated operates 27 paper mills, 21 sawmills, three remanufacturing facilities and one engineered wood facility in Canada, the US, the UK, South Korea, China and Thailand.

World Wildlife Fund Canada is part of WWF International, one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation groups. Founded 40 years ago, this global network now works in over 100 countries, investing nearly 400 million dollars annually in some 700 projects and conservation programs running at any one time around the world. All WWF offices are united by the common goal to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by: conserving the world’s biological diversity; ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable; and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.