Another opportunity to help protect Ontario’s forests
Call on Procter & Gamble to source pulp from sustainably managed forests
The release of the Ontario Forest Sector Strategy in August 2020 shows the province continues to pursue environmental deregulation with little to no regard for forest-dwelling species at risk.
This is distressing and unnecessary. Official statistics show the province has not been cutting all of the wood allocated to it for over a decade; there is room for both conservation and industrial activity in Ontario’s forests. The main cause of the decreased harvest in the past has been market forces and mechanization, not conservation measures.
Government has ignored our measured, evidence-based forest and species conservation recommendations, so we are reaching out to other players, mainly Ontario pulp buyers, one of the biggest of which is Procter & Gamble.
Times are changing. Consumers are paying more attention to the environmental harm caused by disposable products such as toilet paper, tissue and packaging.
Procter & Gamble has the opportunity to play a leadership role by sourcing from forests that are managed to recover species at risk and where free, prior and informed consent is obtained from Indigenous Peoples. The company should also add recycled content to products that now come from newly logged trees in the boreal, where industrial disturbance is driving caribou decline.
In a time when many of us feel powerless to fight environmental deregulation, we must take every opportunity to influence the people making decisions that affect our shared landscapes. Please join us in letting Procter & Gamble know that people who use their products care.