Co-Operating For Change
After protesting in Sweden and once Stora stopped spraying, Neal Livingston was asked to be the cultural and environmental community representative on the company’s Forest Advisory Committee, along with Brian Peters as his alternate representative. Their efforts on this committee were successful in changing attitudes and policies to become somewhat more ecosystem based and ecologically sensitive. In addition, the MEA participated in drafting the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) rules for Acadian Forests. They demanded that in order to qualify for FSC certification companies could not spray pesticides or herbicides, and not allow old growth clearcutting. Stora was intent on gaining and maintaining FSC certification as it would give the company access to lucrative markets. Unfortunately, to this day, spraying and old growth clearcutting continues across the rest of Nova Scotia, more or less with government permission, and when operators can get away with it.
Corrupt Use of Public Funds
In the early 1990s in Nova Scotia, massive clearcutting and spraying were being subsidized with public funding from the Federal and Provincial governments. Livingston was able to obtain the consultant’s report that examined this forestry funding agreement, after over $100 million dollars was given out to woodlot owners through forest contractors / cutters, and to the big industrial forest compnaies. The report, which had not been made public, was shocking. Under this forestry agreement, the federal government required forestry to become sustainable through the strategic allocation of these funds. Instead, the funds were delivered directly to the forest industry (with a wink and a nod) with the false contention that the industry was now sustainable. The result was that these public funds significantly increased the rate of clearcutting and spraying.
With this report in hand we developed a campaign to stop the misuse of more public funding. The Federal government did not renew the forestry agreement with Nova Scotia, because the Nova Scotia forestry department was entirely complicit with the misuse of these funds. The Province then withdrew funding for spraying, which greatly reduced spraying, as no one wanted to pay for it themselves. Unfortunately, spraying continues on mainland Nova Scotia to this day, amidst continued public protest, but not on Cape Breton.