Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for forwarding multicast traffic. The method includes: receiving a third multicast join message; in response to the third multicast join message, sending a first multicast join message to a first upstream router, and establishing an active path; in response to the third multicast join message, sending a second multicast join message to a second upstream router, and establishing a standby path; and sending multicast traffic to the multicast receiver through the active path, where the standby path does not forward the multicast traffic. In the foregoing embodiments, the standby path that does not forward the multicast traffic is established beforehand, so that when a fault occurs in the active path, the standby path established beforehand can be used to forward the multicast traffic.