Gruner + Jahr Helps Secure Protection For 1.8 Million Hectares Of Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest

Gruner + Jahr have long had a policy of environmental friendliness in the extraction, manufacture and use of paper for its magazines. Even back in 1993, the publishing house committed to not using wood from endangered forests for newspaper and magazine manufacture. The publisher can count its dedication to prevent the depletion of virgin forest as a major success. Thanks to the support of Gruner + Jahr and other German publishers, Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest will now be put under environmental protection. 

When protests against the logging of Canadian virgin forest grew in volume in the middle of the 90s, Gruner + Jahr, together with the Association of German Periodical Publishers (VDZ), launched negotiations in Canada. After nearly ten years of exemplary collaboration with the Canadian government, the logging industry, environment groups and native inhabitants, the Great Bear Rainforest will now be environmentally protected. 

The provincial government of British Columbia announced last week that 1.8 million hectares, almost a third of the forest, are now under official protection. In the remaining area, a system of ecological forest utilization will be introduced by 2009. “The fact that we – and the VDZ – didn’t back down over the years in our campaign to save the rainforest has really paid off“, smiles Gruner + Jahr Corporate Social Responsibility spokeswoman Maria Hoffacker. ”This just goes to show that it is possible to reconcile ecological forest management and economic interests.”