TORONTO — Forests in Canada are deeply tied to everything from housing shortages and wildfires to trade tensions and climate change. Yet the federal government is still failing to give Canadians an accurate assessment of forest health and the impacts of current forest management. Those findings are shared in a report released today by a coalition of conservation organizations, which details omissions and greenwashing in Natural Resources Canada’s annual “State of Canada’s Forests” report.
“Accountability…or Advertising? A Critical Review of Canada’s State of the Forests Report” shows how the government downplays the impacts of industrial logging, ignores evidence of forest degradation and falls short of international standards for forest reporting. It also highlights the government’s failure to incorporate Indigenous rights and biodiversity and climate commitments into forest management accountability.
Forest degradation is a serious issue within Canada and a growing concern for its trading partners. Starting in December 2025, the European Union will ban forest products imports sourced from degraded forests.
“Canadians aren’t getting what they deserve, and that’s the true state of forest health across this country,” says Rachel Plotkin, Wildlife Campaigner at the David Suzuki Foundation. “The government is painting a rosy picture. Meanwhile, the impacts of logging on biodiversity and the climate are staggering. If Canadians knew the truth, they would demand better.”
Key findings of the report include:
- Omission of critical data required under the Montreal Process, such as species diversity, forest fragmentation and soil degradation.
- Lack of accountability for logging in habitat of at risk-species such as caribou and primary and old-growth forests.
- Misleading classification of clearcut areas as simply “forest.” Although this aligns with UN definitions, it fails to depict the full picture of forest quality.
- Exclusion of Canada’s international commitments to halt forest loss by 2030.
The report authors are urging the federal government to do better, including by implementing more transparent and science-based reporting and incorporating criteria to assess the extent of Indigenous-led conservation into forest management.
“Canadians want to be seen as a dependable and trustworthy leader on the international stage,” says Julee Boan, Partnership Director of Global Nature at the Natural Resources Defence Council. “To achieve this, we must keep our promises.”
