Consuming Canada's Boreal Forest: The chain of ... - Greenpeace

First Nations:
Left Out of Forest
Management
Greenpeace
Aboriginal peoples are the primary inhabitants of the Boreal Forest region, across which
an estimated one million people live in more than 600 First Nations communities. 1 There has
been growing controversy in the Boreal region with regard to First Nations communities,
many of which have launched legal challenges to have treaty rights and land claims respected
and to equitably share in benefits from resource extraction as well as conserve ecosystems
on which they rely. Because of historic lack of control over resources, and systemic
neglect and abuses by corporations and the Canadian federal and provincial governments,
many communities face extreme poverty, lack of suitable health care and chronic unemployment.
This is exacerbated by ongoing conflicts with logging companies such as Abitibi-
Consolidated and Kruger, who do inadequate consultation with First Nations communities
before proceeding with logging in their traditional territories. This logging is sanctioned by the
provincial governments of Ontario and Quebec, who hand out cutting rights to the companies.
In June 2007, Amnesty International revealed that Canada, despite its international image of
protector of human rights, was stalling negotiations at the United Nations on the adoption of
the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada and Russia were the only two
members of the 47-country Human Rights Council that voted against the UN declaration. 2
Consuming Canada's Boreal Forest: The chain of destruction from logging companies to consumers
25