The State of Forests in Canada: Seeing Through the Spin counters long-entrenched narratives in Canadian government publications that portray industrial logging as “sustainable forest management.” The State of Canada’s Forests Annual Report, published and disseminated around the world by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), offers global reassurance that industrial logging is aligned with sustainable outcomes. Unfortunately, that account rests on a distorted, incomplete analysis of how forests in Canada are truly faring.

This NGO-produced report highlights those foundational flaws and provides an alternative portrait, based on the latest science, showing instead an industry whose current practices are driving widespread forest degradation, species declines, greenhouse gas emissions, and other impacts, and failing to guarantee the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

To address the discrepancies between what the Annual Forests Report says and what is actually occurring in forests in Canada, this report takes stock of the best available science and knowledge to highlight impacts, metrics, and indicators that the federal government and industry partners hope to minimize or dismiss. It takes a critical look at industry claims advanced by NRCan and exposes the limited or selective information upon which these claims are based. In doing so, this report provides a more comprehensive picture of how forests in Canada, which are supposed to be managed for the public good, are doing. It begins with an overview of how Canada measures forests and how fast forests are being logged, particularly areas previously untouched by industry. It then takes a deeper dive into associated biodiversity and climate change impacts and the degree to which governments and industry claim that the forestry sector upholds Indigenous Peoples’ rights.