M-71 Protection of old growth forests

That:
(a) the House recognize that,

(i) Indigenous peoples have rights and title to their traditional territories and have been stewards of these lands since time immemorial,

(ii) the climate crisis require action on the part of all levels of government and industry,

(iii) the federal government has pledged to plant two billion trees as part of its climate action plan,

(iv) a single old growth tree can absorb far more carbon in a year than an acre of seedlings,

(v) old growth forests are bio-diverse and provide ecosystem services both measurable and beyond what can be measured,

(vi) Indigenous peoples have used plant medicines from the ancient forests that modern medical science is only beginning to understand,

(vii) valley-bottom high productivity old growth ecosystems in British Columbia are endangered,

(viii) of the original 360,000 hectares of valley-bottom high productivity old growth on Vancouver Island and South West mainland BC, only 31,000 hectares or 9% remain today, of those only 9,400 hectares or 2.6% of the original are protected in parks,

(ix) on Southern Vancouver Island, Fairy Creek, the last intact old growth valley not protected as park, is slated to be logged along with the upper Walbran Valley and other remaining pockets of valley-bottom high productivity old growth,

(x) the Canadian old growth boreal forest provide ecosystem services to the planet equal to the Amazon rainforest, including carbon sequestration,

(xi) the majority of Canadians support sustainable harvesting of second and third growth forests, but there is no social license to log the last of the giant old growth trees in valley-bottom high productivity forests, or to destroy their surrounding ecosystems; and

(b) in the opinion of the House, the government should,

(i) work with the provinces and First Nations to put an immediate halt to the logging of endangered old growth ecosystems,

(ii) prioritize and fund the long term protection of endangered old growth forest ecosystems as a key component of Canada’s climate action plan and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,

(iii) work with First Nations to protect the Canadian boreal forest as part of the climate action plan,

(iv) support value added forestry industry initiatives in partnership with First Nations aimed at ensuring that Canada can have a sustainable and vibrant forestry industry based on the harvesting of second and third growth forests,

(v) ban the export of raw logs and maximize the use of resources for local jobs
.