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West Fraser believes that actions speak louder than words. That’s why our Company does more than simply talk about environmental commitments: we act.
We support the concept of protected areas, and while these are generally the responsibility of government, we continue to work cooperatively with governments at all levels on protected area initiatives.
Our company has a strong track record when it comes to protecting special places, and we’ve relinquished harvesting rights and deferred harvesting on tenured lands when that was the right thing to do.
The Kitlope
Our record of action and environmental responsibility was made clear in 1994, when, West Fraser voluntarily, and without any compensation, relinquished harvesting rights to the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest on earth: the Kitlope.
No forest company in North America has ever voluntary and without compensation relinquished harvesting rights to such a large area 317,500 hectares or 3,175 square kilometers (1,225 square miles) - and to this day, the Kitlope remains the largest relinquishment of harvesting rights on this continent - ever.
The Kitlope is now protected as a provincial park. For more information on the park, visit the BC Government website.
A History of Responsibility
West Fraser has a long history of deferring or relinquishing harvesting rights in ecologically important areas.
To date, we have deferred or relinquished harvesting rights on close to half a million hectares (1.24 million acres). That’s an area almost 100 times the size of Manhattan.
Besides the Kitlope, other voluntary relinquishments include 1,110 square kilometers (428 square miles) just east of Quesnel Lake in central BC.
In February 2007, West Fraser deferred harvesting on 50,000 hectares (123,500 acres) of woodland caribou habitat in Hinton, Alberta – more than doubling the size of a previous deferral made in 1994 in the same area. This deferral will allow a multi-stakeholder group to provide input into future planning and ensure caribou habitat protection.
Our company will continue to work with forest stakeholders to balance environmental, social and environmental values in the forests where we operate.
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