Sustainable Forestry Management

"Canada is a forest nation. With nearly 300 million hectares of forests and another 92 million hectares of wooded land, Canada has the third-largest expanse of forested land of any country in the world, including 30% of the planet’s boreal forest." (SFM Management in Canada: Clear Policy - Questionable Practice) As Canada is home to such lavish expanses of natural forest, it in our job and the governments to prevent the over harvesting of these stands of trees. The SFM, works to balance all the different uses of the forest while making sure that environmental functioning continues to preserve forest life for the future. So far, Canada is on there way to implementing sustainable forestry practises, but still needs some work in the field of standing by and enforcing their rules.

The current (2003-2008) National Forest Strategy, A Sustainable Forest: The Canadian Commitment, defines actions and goals that will lead to sustainable forest management in Canada. These are grouped under eight broad themes:
-ecosystem-based management;
-sustainable forest communities;
-rights and participation of Aboriginal peoples;
-forest product benefits;
-knowledge and innovation for competitiveness and sustainability;
-the urban forest and public engagement in sustainability;
-private woodlots’ contribution to sustainability;

-reporting and accountability.

Now, Canada has some great ideas and goals but how do they plan on implementing them?
The 1992 National Forest Strategy required the development of SFM Criteria and Indicators (C&I), which the CCFM published in 1995. In 2003, the CCFM updated these C&I, which have been referred to as "the most broadly accepted Canadian forest values generated to date"

The six criteria under the Canadian approach to SFM are:
-biological diversity;
-ecosystem condition and productivity;
-soil and water;
-role in global ecological cycles;
-economic and social benefits; and
-society’s responsibility.

The criteria are evaluated using a total of 46 indicators. According to the CCFM, this criteria will represent the forest values that Canada will need to sustain. So Canada has some great ideas, but the first and only report on Canada’s forests using these C&I was published in 2000 (based on the 1995 C&I). The report is a view of Canadian forests and their management through the lens of the six criteria, but it offers no inferences or conclusions regarding the sustainability of Canadian forests except to suggest that the efforts by various governments to protect more land are positive. Canada really needs to be completing these reports every year including conclusions regarding better ways to improve forest sustainability. A forest inventory that tracks the SFM indicators is an essential tool for successful monitoring and reporting on forest sustainability. The federal government produced Canada’s Forest Inventory (CanFI) reports in 1986, 1991, 1994, and 2001.

Overall, I just think that Canada has some great ideas for laying the foundation to sustaining the nations forests for future generations. The rules just need to be implemented more strictly and more often, maybe even with harder punishments for people and organizations that violate the protection of the forests. Canada needs to be doing yearly reports on their forests, as to better monitor and survey the changes and effects that their newfound policies have had on the forests of Canada.