The author is a professor at UQAM. He co-authored this text with 37 specialist members of the Center for Forest Studies (CEF), a strategic grouping of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT).*
The woodland caribou file has been making headlines lately and a decision will soon be made regarding its protection. The scientific community has proposed several realistic solutions such as closing roads after logging to limit access to predators and maintaining the old forests necessary for caribou — among other things, by more protected territories in large massifs. These solutions are often ruled out by economic arguments. However, these arguments could easily be circumvented if we could count the benefits of these practices on ecological services other than the production of woody material. One of these services is precisely quantifiable and monetizable in Quebec: the sequestration of atmospheric carbon.
Among the positive spinoffs of sustainable forest management practices, carbon sequestration is probably the one that could most effectively justify the costs necessary to preserve within the territories occupied by woodland caribou the large forest areas necessary to maintain their populations. In sectors where logging is concentrated, extending the duration of rotations and carrying out partial logging, rather than just total logging, would contribute to significantly increasing the quantity of carbon sequestered by managed forests, in particular by preserving the vegetation and soil carbon sinks, by increasing the size of harvested trees and maintaining mature forest cover.
This would also preserve the habitat of many other species, both animal and plant, and could increase the resilience of forests to climate change. The reforestation of forest roads, as well as the intensification of development on smaller but more productive territories, located near communities and wood processing centers, are other options that could also contribute to sequestering quantities significant amounts of carbon while compensating for cut reductions elsewhere in the territory.
However, the solution is simple: why not use part of the billions earned in the green fund (the Electrification and Climate Change Fund) for the forest thanks to the cap and trade system for emission rights (the carbon market”), in order to increase the sector’s leeway and create financial incentives for sustainable forest management that would include the protection of biodiversity?
The latest IPCC report also establishes this strategy as a priority for limiting climate change. Another approach would be to allow carbon credit projects on public land in order to finance initiatives useful in the fight against climate change and compatible with the sustainable development of forests, thus creating new economic activity.
We therefore propose that Québec’s efforts to achieve its GHG emission reduction targets be allowed to be transferred to the forest. This strategy, known as nature-based solutions, is widely recognized by science and major international organizations and would be a winner on all fronts by helping to protect the caribou, an emblematic species for biodiversity, whose cultural value is essential for many First Nations, while contributing to the fight against climate change. And this, while preserving the forest resource as a determining economic engine for several regions of Quebec.
Not to seriously consider this option would be incomprehensible and unacceptable, both for a large part of the scientific community and for the general public. We are therefore asking the Government of Quebec to quickly do this accounting and determine how the money currently devoted to reducing GHG emissions, or that generated by carbon credits, could stimulate forest sector revenues and long-term supplies. in addition to helping to maintain caribou habitat and forest carbon sinks.
*Also signed this letter, as main authors: Xavier Cavard (UQAT), Yves Bergeron (UQAT-UQAM), Jean-François Boucher (UQAC)
The full list of other co-signers:
Nicolas Belanger (TELUQ), Marc Bélisle (U. of Sherbrooke), Etienne Boucher (UQAM), Yan Boulanger (UQAR), Jean Bousquet (U. Laval), Jérôme Cimon-Morin (U. Laval), Louis de Grandpré (Natural Resources Canada), Sylvain Delagrange (UQO), Loïc D’Orangeville (U. New Brunswick), Frederik Doyon (UQO), Jerome Dupras (UQO), Angelique Dupuch (UQO), Elise Filotas (TELUQ), Richard Fournier (U. of Sherbrooke), Daniel Fortin (U. Laval), Tanya Handa (UQAM), Daniel Kneeshaw (UQAM), Cornelia Krause (UQAC), Michel Labrecque (University of Montreal), Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe (U. of Sherbrooke), Serge Lavoie (UQAC), Alain Leduc (UQAM), Francois Lorenzetti (UQO), Marc J. Mazerolle (U. Laval), Alain Paquette (UQAM), David Paré (Natural Resources Canada), David Rivest (UQO), Sergio Rossi (UQAC), Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques (Concordia), Martin-Hugues St-Laurent (UQAR), Martin Simard (U. Laval), Osvaldo Valeria (UQAT), Louis Imbeau (UQAT)