Victoria's Secret, high-school rappers and First Nations communities
honoured for contributions to conserving Canada's Boreal Forest
OTTAWA, Canada, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- What do Aboriginal communities,
teen rap musicians and a US company, best known for its lingerie, have in
common? According to the Boreal Leadership Council (BLC) -- plenty; they
have all been instrumental in helping to conserve Canada's Boreal Forest
and in raising awareness of its global importance.
"This year, progress towards protecting Canada's Boreal Forest has
really picked up momentum. The hard work of many, many people, including
the communities that we honoured last night, has created the opportunity to
celebrate some of the most significant land conservation initiatives in
North American history, protecting millions of hectares of the Canadian
Boreal Forest," said Larry Innes, Executive Director of the Canadian Boreal
Initiative (CBI).
The Boreal Awards recognize leadership, innovation, cooperation and
excellence among stakeholders who live and work in Canada's Boreal Forest
region, along with those who have made an outstanding contribution to
protection of the Boreal Forest and the advancement of the principles
outlined in the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework.
Last night at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa the following
award winners were honored:
Individual Achievement Award; Student GEORGE WOODHOUSE, with Blake
Godward and David Lawless, for creatively spreading insightful messages
among youth about the importance of Canada's Boreal Forest through video
and song.
Corporate Award; LIMITED BRANDS, INC. (parent company of Victoria's
Secret) for significantly advancing sustainable conservation in the Boreal
Forest by changing their purchasing policy and actively advocating for
Boreal Forest conservation.
Community Award; POPLAR RIVER FIRST NATION for their unwavering support
to protect their traditional homelands on the eastern side of Lake
Winnipeg, and their leadership in advancing, with the Province of Manitoba,
a proposal to have a significant area of Canada's Boreal Forest in Manitoba
and Ontario declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Community Award; LUTSEL K'E DENE FIRST NATION for their vision and
leadership in advancing the designation of the East Arm National Park on
the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Together with the
Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories and the other Akaitcho
communities, Lutsel'Ke has been at the forefront of accomplishing the
largest single land withdrawal for conservation in Canadian history.
Award recipients were selected by a committee of the 18-member Boreal
Leadership Council, which itself has had the most significant expansion
since the group's inception. Earlier this week, Nexen Inc., the Pembina
Institute, Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta and Domini Social Investments
LLC joined the BLC. These groups were officially welcomed at Thursday's
event.
"It was a pleasure to welcome fellow leaders in Boreal conservation on
an evening when creativity and passion for Canada's Boreal Forest were so
evident in the nominees and recipients of the Boreal Awards. These
organizations have committed to implementing the Boreal Forest Conservation
Framework as they move forward," said Mike Martel, Senior Vice President of
Forest Resource Management with Tembec Industries Inc. and past chair of
the BLC.
The Canadian Boreal Forest is the largest intact forest remaining on
the planet, rivaling the Amazon in size and ecological importance. It
stores twice as much carbon per acre as tropical rainforests, mitigating
the effects of global warming. It also teems with wildlife, including
nesting grounds for billions of migratory songbirds and 40% of North
America's waterfowl. Canada's Boreal is also home to some of the world's
largest remaining populations of grizzly and polar bears, wolves, woodland
and barren-ground caribou.
The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, a visionary plan for Canadian
wilderness developed by the Boreal Leadership Council, is endorsed by over
1500 scientists, 25 Aboriginal organizations, 100 corporations and leading
conservation groups in Canada.
The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework calls for permanently
protecting at least 50% of the Canadian Boreal and applying strict
environmental safeguards for development in any other areas.
Based in Ottawa, the Canadian Boreal Initiative brings together diverse
partners to create new solutions for Boreal conservation and acts as a
catalyst for on-the-ground efforts across the Boreal by governments,
industry, First Nations, conservation groups, major retailers, financial
institutions and scientists.
The Boreal Leadership Council (BLC) is comprised of leading
conservation groups, Aboriginal organizations, resource companies and
financial institutions, all of which have an interest and a stake in the
future of Canada's Boreal Forest. Members of the Council are signatories to
the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, and are committed to Framework
implementation in their activities.
For more information:
Larry Innes
Canadian Boreal Initiative
Phone: 416-575-6776
http://www.borealcanada.ca
Mike Martel
Tembec Industries Inc.
Phone: 819-627-4744
Boreal Award Winners Contact Information:
George Woodhouse
Phone: 519-371-7775
Limited Brands
Tom Katzenmeyer
Senior Vice President of Investor, Media and Community Relations
Phone: 614-415-7076
Poplar River First Nation
Ray Rabliauskas
Phone: 204-799-3120
Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation
Chief Adeline Jonasson
Phone: 867-270-3051
James Marlowe, Thaidene Nene Working Group
Phone: 867-370-3144
BACKGROUNDER
George Woodhouse
Rap music is not often associated with the Boreal Forest. Owen Sound
student George Woodhouse, along with friends and classmates Blake Godward
and David Lawless, changed all that with a recent science class project.
Their class was assigned a project to discuss what they had learned in
their ecology unit, and the avid musicians went beyond typical expectations
to produce a rap song -- complete with music video -- about Canada's Boreal
Forest. Peppered with such insights as "Now in maybe twenty years you're
gonna wonder why/All the birds and trees were just left to die" the teens'
song makes some hard- hitting points about the importance of the Boreal
Forest to the planet and the threats it faces from increased industrial
development.
Link to Rap Song: http://www.borealbirds.org/movies.shtml
Limited Brands
On December 5, 2006 Limited Brands unveiled a leadership paper policy
that has significantly advanced sustainability and conservation in the
Boreal Forest. The policy, changes to paper and within its supply chain,
and the suite of advocacy and communication initiatives that Limited Brands
has undertaken are helping to ensure that the pulp for the company's
catalog paper does not come from endangered forests in the Boreal. This is
creating positive incentives and awareness, resulting in Boreal
conservation and sustainability.
The established policy goals and commitments are that Limited Brands
will (1) partner with its primary paper supplier to eliminate all pulp
supplied from endangered forests of Canada's Boreal Forest, including
Alberta's Rocky Mountain Foothills and the British Columbia Inland
Temperate Rainforest; (2) Shift its catalogs to either 10% post consumer
waste or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified content beginning in
2007; (3) A preference for FSC certification; (4) Overall catalog paper
reduction; (5) A commitment to continual improvement on environmental
attributes of catalog paper and paper use; (6) A commitment to phase out of
sourcing from Caribou Habitat and Endangered Forests; (7) and one million
dollars committed to research and advocacy to protect Endangered Forests
and ensure leadership in the catalog industry; (8) Support the Boreal
Conservation Framework.
In the past year, Limited Brands has had a profound impact on Canada's
Boreal Forest, taking action and helping to catalyze key changes in their
own sector, within paper mills, the logging industry and governments. By
engaging with media and being a strong public advocate of environmental
paper and the Boreal Forest, they have also been highly instrumental in
bringing the importance of Boreal forest conservation and market demand for
sustainability into the public sphere. In the past year, J. Crew, Crate &
Barrel and LL Bean, three of the biggest and best known brands in the
sector, have followed Limited Brand's lead and strengthened their
procurement policies to prefer FSC certified paper and to incorporate
recycled fiber.
Along with their outspoken commitment to change and inspire other
companies, they are influencing change in the logging industry. After
announcing their commitment to conservation initiatives, Limited Brands
convinced its paper supplier to terminate their contract with a supplier
producing pulp in the Boreal forests of Alberta's Rocky Mountain Foothills.
Limited Brands has also convinced one of its principal suppliers to have
all four of its mills certified to FSC Chain of Custody - creating more
demand for FSC certified fiber from the Boreal.
Poplar River First Nation
The traditional territory of the 1200 member Poplar River First Nation
is located on the eastern side of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, and forms a
significant part of Canada's Boreal Forest. For thousands of years, the
Poplar River First Nation has carried out its traditional mandate to
protect the region and its resources. Over the past eight years, Poplar
River has worked with the Government of Manitoba and with conservation
organizations to secure interim protection for over 800,000 hectares of
undisturbed forest land (an area larger than Banff National Park). In 2004,
Poplar River developed a comprehensive land protection and management plan
for their territory-a precedent-setting accomplishment among First Nations
in the region. Poplar River's current efforts are focused on securing
permanent protection of their land and advancing a larger UNESCO World
Heritage Site proposal with other First Nations in the region. Sophia
Rabliauskas, one of the key leaders of these efforts, was recently honoured
with the international Goldman Environmental prize for her role in this
work.
Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation
The Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation occupies a vast traditional territory
in the eastern Northwest Territories. This homeland spans a great swath of
land from the boreal forest around the East Arm of Great Slave Lake to the
barrenlands of the upper Thelon River basin. The ancestors of the Lutsel
K'e Dene settled in this territory because of its rich natural resources -
the pure waters and abundant wildlife have sustained generations of Dene
since time immemorial.
The Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation has the sacred responsibility to
ensure that its traditional territory remains capable of sustaining the way
of life of its people for generations to come. Future generations must be
able to experience the land as their ancestors have before. In this
interest, the First Nation has taken a leadership role in realizing the
following initiatives:
-- The halting of uranium exploration in the upper Thelon River basin, the
"Place where God Began";
-- Investigating the feasibility of establishing a new National Park in
Thaidene Nene ("Land of the Ancestors"), the core of Lutsel K'e's
traditional territory;
-- The interim protection of approximately 95 000 km2, comprising the
largest land withdrawal in Canadian history.
Currently, the Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation is focusing on completing
its conversation network with a finalized National Park and a Special
Management Area in the upper Thelon, as well as beginning comprehensive
land-use planning in its entire traditional territory.
SOURCE Canadian Boreal Initiative
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Related links:
http://www.borealcanada.ca
http://www.limitedbrands.com/
CONTACT:
Larry Innes, Canadian Boreal Initiative,
+1-416-575-6776, or Mike Martel, Tembec Industries Inc.,
+1-819-627-4744; Boreal Award Winners Contact Information: George
Woodhouse, +1-519-371-7775, Tom Katzenmeyer, Senior Vice
President of Investor, Media and Community Relations, Limited
Brands, +1-614-415-7076, Ray Rabliauskas, Poplar River First
Nation, +1-204-799-3120, Chief Adeline Jonasson, Lutsel K'e Dene
First Nation, +1-867-270-3051, James Marlowe, Thaidene Nene
Working Group, +1-867-370-3144
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