Forest company and conservation group signatories to the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) welcome Ontario’s support today of their approach and joint recommendations on an action plan for an area of the province’s boreal forest almost five times the size of Metro Toronto. The action plan recommendations aim to secure the future of the 3 million hectares of caribou range in the Abitibi River Forest to conserve Boreal woodland caribou and maintain hundreds of jobs in forestry. The proposed approach and recommendations are intended to produce over 800,000 hectares of critical habitat for Boreal woodland caribou that would be excluded from harvest. The remaining 2.2 million hectares would remain open to forestry, with high standards of sustainable forest practices in place to safeguard wildlife and ecosystems. “This proposed breakthrough plan for the Abitibi River Forest underscores that prosperity and conservation go hand-in-hand by recognizing that conservation is not at the expense of economic prosperity, but complementary to it. It is also a testament to the collective efforts of the environmental groups and companies that have been able to find common ground” said Janet Sumner, executive director of CPAWS-Wildlands League, one of Canada’s leading conservation groups.