Boreal Futures: Governance, Conservation and Development in Canada’s Boreal
The current strategy has eight key themes: • ecosystem-based management; • sustainable forest communities; • rights and participation of Aboriginal peoples; • forest products benefits; • knowledge and innovation for competitiveness and sustainability; • the urban forest and public engagement in sustainability; • private woodlots’ contribution to sustainability; and • reporting and accountability. WESTERN BOREAL CONSERVATION INITIATIVE (WBCI) The WBCI was launched in April 2003 through Environment Canada to promote an interjurisdictional focus on the boreal forest. The WBCI is a multi-partner initiative that seeks to facilitate conservation and protection of western boreal forest ecosystems and their biodiversity, to support sustainable development of natural resources, and to provide a foundation for a future national initiative. The WBCI has entered into partnerships with the forest and energy industries, Aboriginal groups, environmental non-government organizations, provincial governments, and universities and other research institutions. Partners include the Sustainable Forest Management Network, the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program and the Cumulative Environmental Management Association. The WBCI delivers knowledge, advice and action relevant to managing boreal forests for biodiversity. Key projects under development include: • a national boreal bird monitoring program; • a national boreal bird habitat predictive modelling project; • research on the impacts of human and natural disturbance on boreal birds (including the individual and cumulative impacts of industrial activity); and • policy analyses to support conservation and local benefits from boreal forests.
CANADIAN BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY The Strategy’s primary goals are to promote the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of biological resources. The Strategy also seeks to develop incentives and legislation, information gathering and educational programs to support these goals. In 1997, the Canadian Forest Service developed a three-year action plan for contributing to the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. The plan identified several then-current initiatives, including the Model Forests Program and CCFM programs. The plan also proposed projects involving scientific and policy research to promote biodiversity in Canada’s forests. CANADA’S PLAN FOR MEETING ITS KYOTO PROTOCOL COMMITMENTS Canada’s boreal forest is a significant storehouse of greenhouse gases (GHGs), so reduction of the forest base may have substantial implications for global warming. Likewise, Canada may have to account for GHGs released through deforestation in meeting its GHG reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol, which Canada ratified in December 2002. Although the federal government has not yet adopted a final plan for achieving its GHG emission reduction targets under the Protocol, it has identified forest conservation and improved forest management as among the tools that may be needed to meet those targets. However, further research is necessary to confirm the overall importance of forest conservation and management in meeting Canada’s Kyoto obligations. QUEBEC COMMISSION FOR THE STUDY OF PUBLIC FOREST MANAGEMENT Quebec recently undertook a major independent public review of forest management, much of it relevant to the boreal region.3 The Commission for the study of public forest management in Québec (known as the Coulombe Commission) focused on the economic, environmental, social and regional aspects of Quebec’s forests. The Commission recommended that: • the province reduce allowable cutting levels by 20%, in response to past over-harvesting; • a new position of chief forester for the province be established to oversee forest management activities in the province; • Quebec move away from managing forests primarily for wood production and focus instead on ecosystem-based management, recognizing multiple users and benefits;
81