This issue of Taiga News looks at the themes of this year’s Biennial Meeting for the Taiga Rescue Network – birds and paper.
Many of the consumer decisions in developed countries south of the boreal are critical to the ecological fate of the boreal forests. Fibre from boreal forests in Scandinavia, Canada, and Russia supplies approximately 20% of the world’s total raw material for paper production. With paper consumption increasing rapidly in spite of our increasing use of electronic communications, our decisions about paper consumption will have a major impact on the fate of the taiga.
We can contribute to boreal bird and forest conservation by reducing consumption and increasing recycling of paper, providing economic incentives for retooling of mills to produce paper from recycled material, and reducing government subsidies to the industry.
Birds of the taiga are the focus of five of the articles in this issue as we look at how the welfare of boreal birds reflects the global importance of the forests they inhabit. We also provide a summary of the European NGOs Paper Vision for you and news about Greenpeace’s campaign against cutting ancient Canadian boreal forests to process into timber and paper products.
Visit the Environmental Paper Watch website to see how you can change your paper habits:www.environmentalpaper.org/commonvision.html
Leslie Cole, Editor |
