Greenpeace is supporting the Waswanipi Cree Nation

Greenpeace is supporting the Waswanipi Cree Nation, as well as scientists and environmental organizations, as they urge Premier Philippe Couillard to protect the last pristine forest on Cree ancestral territory.

Greenpeace said proposed logging roads and clearcuts, currently under government review, threaten more than 113,000 hectares of forest, south of the Broadback River.

“The roads and logging in the Broadback endangered forest are direct threats to the Cree way of life, to the survival of the woodland caribou, and to the integrity of one of Quebec’s last great forests,” said Nicolas Mainville, forest campaigner at Greenpeace. “The Cree have waited long enough. We now ask Mr. Couillard to act by July 2016 in order to protect this extraordinary forest once and for all.”

The road construction project is backed by five logging companies, including Resolute Forest Products and Eacom Timber Corporation, and is being evaluated by the Environmental and Social Impact Review Committee (COMEX), presided by Mr. André Boisclair, reads a press release.

Greenpeace submitted a report to the COMEX demonstrating that authorizing this project, without community support, would have major environmental impacts on Waswanipi ancestral territory, and would seriously undermine the credibility of the committee’s public consultations.