WASWANIPI, QC, Sept. 23, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - The Cree First Nation of Waswanipi and Greenpeace are launching a petition asking the Quebec Government to ensure the protection of the last intact forests, located on Cree Territory (Eeyou Istchee) in the Broadback River Valley.
Distributed on a global scale, the petition aims at supporting the Cree's efforts on the protection of one of the last havens of untouched forests in Quebec, and can be found on a website created by Greenpeace to promote the protection of the Broadback forest: www.savethebroadback.ca.
«That's our home, we'll do anything that we can to protect it » said Chief Marcel Happyjack in the new video which can also be found on the website. « The Broadback isn't for sale, it's up for protection» said Mandy Gull, Vice-Chief of the Cree Nation of Waswanipi, in that same video.
The latest satellite images already show that 90% of the ancestral territory in Waswanipi has already been cut or fragmented by the forest industry which has had a fundamental impact on Cree way of life. Not only is this large untouched forest vital and life-sustaining to the Cree Nation way of life, but also, it is an essential refuge for endangered species, such as the woodland caribou. So, Waswanipi is asking the Quebec Government to protect the Broadback sector, the last 10% of the territory that is spared by logging and roads.
«What we are denouncing, with the support of Greenpeace and many others, is not the actual forest industry, it is the logging operations intended to take place in one of our last pristine forests, which at this time are still not protected. We wish for this request to receive widespread support from the population, » concludes Chief Happyjack.
SOURCE Cree First Nation of Waswanipi
SOURCE: Julie Ann Cooper, Interim Political Attache, The Office of the Chief, 614-800-7629, [email protected]; INFORMATION: Steven Blacksmith, Director of Natural Resources, 819-753-2587, [email protected]
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