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A recent visit to Canada focused on two of the world's most discussed environmental issues – forests and oil sands – both integral to the world's biggest environmental issue, climate change.
The first few days were spent in and around Calgary, Alberta with oil producers, going underground to see mines at first hand and visiting above ground operations. Long conversations with the experts didn't avoid the awkward questions about carbon emissions, tailings ponds and oil sands' impacts on forests and land in general.
To find out more about Alan's view of the oil sands debate, see Alan's blog.
After Calgary, the journey continued on to Montreal where the Forest Stewardship Council board meeting was being held. This is more familiar territory for Alan who has been closely involved in the FSC since its inception in 1991. Here the hot topic was the FSC's role in a world where forests are now recognised as having wider uses for storing carbon, potential fuel resources, other ecoservices and landscapes – and well beyond the thought that they are just repositories for the production of timber and paper. It's a tough discussion, juggling the huge implications of what forests are for at the same time as maintaining the integrity of current core products' certification.