In Forestry Terms, Canada Is A Superpower

"Canada may well be the smallest economy in the G8, but when it comes to forestry, we're a superpower." This comment by Brian Emmett, Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Forest Service (CFS), underlines his optimism about a Statement of Cooperation signed in April 2005 by the CFS and Russia's Federal Forest Agency (FFA).

"As opposed to being the world's seventh largest economy, we're the third largest forest nation—with Russia first and Brazil second," says Emmett. "And we're the world's second largest boreal forest nation, with Russia again first."

With the Government of Canada's emphasis on Canada "trying to reassert a role of punching above its weight a little bit," the ADM believes the country's resource industries could well be a platform to do so.

"What we do in forestry matters to the global economy and to the global environment," he says. "This is an area in which Canada has an influence on the world that's proportional to its geography. Reaching out on these things is important."

Emmett believes the federal government has an ongoing interest in a prosperous and stable Russia, which has remained a superpower despite having undergone major political changes in recent times.

"We're a lot alike. They're a big forest nation and we're a big forest nation. They're a northern country, a boreal country. We should be talking to them. We should have relations with them as we have with other forest nations, such as the Scandinavian countries."

The ADM says that Russia has magnificent forest resources that are a tremendous gift of nature. However, because of the transition the country has been through over the last decade and a half, they don't necessarily have the governance in place or the infrastructure to achieve what Canada has been able to achieve with its forests.

"Because the forests are owned by the Crown here, i.e. the citizens, and by the State in Russia, we share a desire to get adequate compensation for the use of fibre for commercial purposes and we want to regulate harvesting in environmentally and economically responsible ways," he says. "We also have a common goal of putting an end to illegal logging, which protects the natural environment locally and globally."

"One of the things that Canada is really good at is that sort of governance. We have a lot of people who are really experienced and Russia has a big need for that sort of expertise. So it strikes me that we have an ideal situation where we have something and they need something. So, why not work together for our mutual benefit?"

Signing of the Russia-Canada Statement of Cooperation Left: Brian Emmett, Assistant Deputy Minister, NRCan-CFS Right: Valery Roshchupkin, Director of the Russian Federal Forest Agency

And so, after high-level meetings in Russia in April between senior CFS personnel and their counterparts in the FFA of the Russian Federation's Ministry of Natural Resources, a Statement of Cooperation was signed by Emmett and Mr. Valery Roshchupkin, head of the FFA.

The preamble of the Statement recognizes a mutual interest between the two countries in forest resources management, and also suggests a need for wider and deeper long-term cooperation in the field of forestry, which the two parties intend to develop in six areas:

• Control and protection of forests (pest management and fire)
• Legislative and organizational aspects of forest management (forest code)
• National programs on model forests (circumboreal network of model forests)
• Management of temperate and boreal forests
• Exchange of scientific and technical information in the field of forestry
• Working out a voluntary forest certification system

Emmett says there are some people who might wonder why Canada is helping a competitor at a time when this country's forest industry is going through a very difficult stage.

"To me, the answer is pretty simple," he says. "The're going to be a competitor anyway, so it's best to know on what terms and conditions they're going to compete."

The ADM adds that Russia has to have the governance in place to achieve these goals. "Governance is a technology just like anything else and we can export it," he says. "If there's a demand for it in Russia, why shouldn't Canadians work with them to make a difference?"

Another item in the Statement of Cooperation that Emmett is particularly enthusiastic about is the possibility of a circumboreal network of model forests. He points out that the boreal forest is a global commodity in the Northern Hemisphere, stretching across Canada, Russia and the Scandinavian countries, as well as parts of the United States and Japan.

"Focusing solely on one (country's) boreal forest as opposed to the global resource doesn't make any sense to me at all," he says. If you're talking about a global resource, you should be looking at it in a global way, and we want to talk with the Russians about that."

The ADM cautions, however, that the Russian initiative will only succeed if other government departments are willing to cooperate.

We have to work, not only on convincing the Russians that we have something solid to build on, but on convincing our colleagues here in Canada that we have a budding relationship that we're nurturing," he says. "The challenge is to take what was agreed to at a conceptual level and make it real, because otherwise it's just words."

"I was at a conference in Vancouver and, being the Pacific coast, there was a lot of focus on China. One of the participants quoted a Chinese proverb that had a lot of truth to it: "Talk doesn't cook rice." What we have here is very nice talk and a good recipe for cooking rice but we haven't actually started cooking yet. The value of the whole thing will be determined by whether we produce something on the ground and make a real difference."