Click here for a listing of the RAVEN activities related to forestry and alternatives to resource extraction, including the articles and videos produced on this theme.
Forestry is a significant industry in New Brunswick, providing thousands of jobs in rural communities across the province. At the same time, rural opposition to current forestry management practices is also significant. More than 35,000 people have signed a petition asking the government to stop approving the practice of spraying tree plantations on public lands with herbicide (glyphosate).
Forestry is our main extractive industry. Other extractive processes in New Brunswick include fracking, mining and quarrying. Alternatives to industrial extractive practices include community forestry and rural community economic development more broadly.
Rural residents are advocating for community forestry and sustainable community development initiatives that provide meaningful work without the need for large-scale industrial resource extraction. Their voices are excluded from corporate media in the province.
RAVEN is currently engaged with this issue primarily by:
- Working collaboratively with rural NB residents to produce a photovoice exhibition related to resource extraction and related environmental concerns in their communities.
- Supporting the production of articles and videos published in the NB Media Co-op that promote the voices of environmental activists advocating for changes to current forest management practices.
- Analyzing the coverage of forestry issues in both the commercial mainstream media and alternative media venues.
Completed activities under this theme include:
- Supporting a visit by a mining industry activist who made presentations in Fredericton, Sackville and Saint John to launch a book on how to protect rural communities from the mining industry.
- Organizing a panel Women Resisting Extractivism, that featured Indigenous women activists presenting their work.
- Organizing a presentation and discussion on resource extraction in rural British Columbia and northern Peru by a visiting scholar.