MONTREAL — Greenpeace is retracting several statements it made about the logging operations of Resolute Forest Products in Quebec.
In December, the environmental group withdrew from a national agreement between forestry companies and environmental groups, alleging that Resolute was approving and developing roads in areas forbidden under the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. Greenpeace also said Resolute was secretly engaged in logging.
Resolute denied the allegations at the time, calling them erroneous, deceptive and misleading. The Montreal-based company sent a letter to customers in December saying that the roads Greenpeace accused the company of building were, in fact, authorized under the CBFA or built by the Quebec government, and that pictures of a "ravaged" forest were, in fact, taken at a site harvested in the early 2000s following rules in place at the time.
A spokesman for Resolute said Wednesday that the company was "very pleased" with the retraction by Greenpeace.
What Greenpeace said "was untrue ... deceptive and not in any way in good faith," Seth Kursman said.
The CBFA is a landmark agreement signed in 2010 between 21 forestry companies and nine environmental groups aimed at protecting 72 million hectares of forest.
In a news release posted on its website, Greenpeace said it "sincerely regrets the error" and has removed any references to those statements from its materials.
"Our statements were based on the use of inaccurate maps," said senior forest campaigner Stephanie Goodwin. "They were maps that were used to define the limits of the (Canadian Boreal Forest) agreement and they were missing a data layer, and as a result were inaccurate, and gave us some inaccurate analysis."
Despite the retraction, Greenpeace will not return to the boreal forest agreement, Goodwin said.
"It is no longer a credible agreement for us," she said.
Kursman said that since Greenpeace's departure from the table, "we have had collaborative, productive discussions" involving all parties.
"That does not mean there are not challenges. This is a very complicated conservation agreement," he said.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technolo ... z2OevKT3OSThey quietly retracted statements that gave them big headlines.
The media believes everything that comes out of Greenpeace and never calls them to task.