Success Stories

Due to the hard work and commitment of ForestEthics staff, supporters, and allies, 2008 has been our most successful year to date. There has been remarkable on-the-ground Endangered Forest protection, corporate environmental commitments, major news articles, and many other achievements along the way. If the following success stories are any indicator, 2009 will be an amazing year for environmental protection.

Moratorium on Shell's plans to destroy the Sacred Headwaters
Victory in the Boreal Forest
Do Not Mail campaign launches
Catalyzing corporate progress
Turning historic commitments into real-world protection
Progress on protecting critical regions

Moratorium on Shell's plans to destroy the Sacred Headwaters

The government of British Columbia recently announced a two-year moratorium on coalbed methane drilling in the pristine wilderness area of the Sacred Headwaters. This is an incredible victory. Over the next two years, Royal Dutch Shell, who has been attempting to begin a costly and destructive drilling project for years, will be barred from all development activity in the Sacred Headwaters.

This is our time to address the root problem: BC's weak regulatory process for coalbed methane development, one of the most environmentally harmful sources of natural gas. ForestEthics has joined Citizens Concerned About Coalbed Methane (CCCM), a coalition of BC residents working to protect wilderness areas like the Sacred Headwaters permanently. Check out CCCM's five-point plan, and get involved.

Victory in the Boreal Forest

On July 14, 2008, we celebrated the largest forest protection victory in the history of our organization. Due largely to the efforts of ForestEthics and its allies, the Ontario government committed to protect 55 million acres (more than 20 million hectares) of the northern Boreal Forest—an area half the size of California, or six times the size of Belgium—from industrial development. The commitment will secure more than 50 billion tons of stored carbon, help species and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate, and provide habitat for the threatened woodland caribou.

Over the coming year, our task is to ensure that the commitments are implemented as promised and to use the agreement to leverage further progress. We're already beginning to see an incredible domino effect: in November, Quebec announced a similar protection commitment for 70 million acres (28 million hectares) of its own northern Boreal Forest.

Help us bring about more protection of the Boreal in 2009.

Do Not Mail campaign launches

Our campaign to mitigate the enormous and unnecessary environmental impact of junk mail made its public debut on March 11, 2008, with the launch of a new website at www.donotmail.org. The site's online petition has attracted over 70,000 signatories—including celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, Darryl Hannah and Alicia Silverstone.

Moreover, it has inspired 1,600 people to volunteer for the campaign. This is by far the fastest and largest increase in support we've ever generated on a campaign. Also, the Do Not Mail campaign was awarded a Path to Victory Award by the Business Ethics Network this year and our efforts have secured over 45 media stories in such prominent outlets as The Washington Post, Good Morning America Radio, Salon.com, The Nation, The New York Post and The New York Sun.

Help us bring about the formation of a Do Not Mail Registry in the U.S. in 2009.

Catalyzing corporate progress

Once again, our unique ability to work cooperatively with companies ready to embrace sustainable practices—while simultaneously holding irresponsible companies publicly accountable—has resulted in significant progress.  Companies like Hewlett-Packard, CIBC, and Macy’s/Bloomingdales worked with our Market Solutions department (CAP) to adopt new, leading environmental policies for the paper they use.  CAP also worked with companies like Corporate Express, FedEx Office, Limited Brands, Nordstrom, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples to help the companies avoid Endangered Forest products, use more sustainable paper, and/or reduce their paper consumption.

Help us bring about a new environmental policy for Sears in 2009.

Turning historic commitments into real-world protection

Last year, the government of British Columbia committed to protect five million acres (two million hectares) of endangered caribou habitat in the Inland Temperate Rainforest due to our efforts. Since then, we've succeeded in the considerable task of keeping the proposed acreage intact despite considerable pressure from the logging and recreation industries. We also saved close to an additional one million acres (200,000 hectares) from logging in the Great Bear Rainforest, following the historic commitment we secured from the British Columbia government in 2006.

Help us bring about more on-the-ground forest protection in 2009.

Progress on protecting critical regions

Our other regional campaigns also have significant achievements to report. Our Save the Sierra Campaign made progress with Lowe's, Home Depot and Pro-Build, and appeared in 20 media stories across California, including a feature article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Our Chile Campaign laid the foundation for additional protected areas through negotiations with some of the country's largest landowners. Furthermore, we set the stage for a new Tar Sands Campaign, designed to reform the tremendous climate change impact of the world's largest petroleum project.

Help us make 2009 even more successful than 2008!