William Bourgeois, Vice President, Environment and Government Affairs, Lignum Ltd., Vancouver, BC
The needs of forestry and forest education from an industrial perspective must be presented in the context of the conditions in which the forest industry finds itself and the environment in which foresters will work in the future. This paper will provide one person's view from within a British Columbia context that may be useful in other parts of the world. However, it should not be considered an industry position.
There are people who suggest an operational forester must understand global issues to do his/her job on a daily basis. It is my opinion that this is not the case. However, foresters do need to know about these issues if they are to adequately move towards the practice of Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). This differentiation is critical when talking about educating foresters. It is commonly assumed that because we talk and teach sustainable forest management, it is the basis for the daily job of the forester. Operational foresters are commonly asked to conduct their activities to meet short-term economic and environmental objectives. However, there is continuous pressure on forest companies to practice SFM. This has to be done under the pressures of:
Today's forester must balance the short-term economic and environmental goals imposed upon him/her with these longer term demands of society. In many cases the short term goals tend to take priority.
The challenge of the British Columbia forest industry is to make a reasonable return on investment while meeting the varied (and changing) expectations of local, provincial, national, and international communities and customers. To achieve this goal, the forester must work towards a vision of the expected products from the forest. In BC the Chief Forester, Larry Pedersen, has provided us with a provincial vision.
"BC will have the best natural forest managers in the world and will produce products that are valued and embraced by the marketplace."
Each forest estate within the provincial forest must have a management vision compatible to that of the Chief Forester's. Lignum has such a vision.
"Sustaining the ecological integrity of the forest ecosystem while maintaining long-term profitability through fibre security and sawmill configuration."
To achieve these visions, the forest has to be managed for timber, biodiversity, visual aesthetics, recreation and other non-timber resource values. This involves the balancing of economic, environmental and social values. It does not mean taking the easy way out by giving priority to one value, such as tying up vast areas of productive forest (e.g. coastal BC), over the integration of all values. It is the responsibility of all managers and decision-makers to meet the challenge of finding ways to realize the economic, environmental and social opportunities of these areas through the practices leading to SFM.
SFM is a function of perspective, process, approach and practices involving monitoring and adaptive management.
If we are to be successful in moving towards SFM and meeting visions such as those noted above, foresters have to work within a clear management framework. Lignum has developed such an analytical framework that provides a basis to meet the SFM challenges in BC and may be useful in other forests around the world.
The inputs to the framework include resource inventories, land use planning, silviculture, forest health, ecosystem management planning, job creation and monitoring and adaptive management. All of these components have linkages to SFM planning, SFM Science and Technology (S&T), implementation of SFM regimes, SFM monitoring, SFM communications, extension, training and job creation. It is obvious that forestry schools play a critical part in many of these components.
It is crystal clear that the future advancement of SFM will be through partnerships and relationships. These will involve the academic sector through both policy and operational input. Collaborative partnerships will involve:
SFM delivery through partnerships requires the forest industry to conduct their practices differently. It means change, which the industry has trouble handling voluntarily. Consequently, the basis for change will be through demonstrations of the associated benefits and risks with conducting business in a different way. The forestry schools play a key role in demonstrating the benefits and risks associated with this change.
Forestry schools have long been the best to advise and train people on forest management. There are some people who think forestry can be incorporated into the mandate of other schools who normally deal with social, economic and biological disciplines. Because SFM contains all of these components, it is more efficient to train foresters in one school where the integration can be emphasized. Therefore, forestry schools should remain the primary educator for forest managers and practitioners.
To adequately meet the objective of having trained professionals that manage a forest sustainably, forestry schools have to provide graduates with:
It is important that forestry schools create an environment and challenge that will attract non-foresters to classes and degrees. This will provide the cross-fertilization necessary to produce the rounded student required to meet the SFM objectives.
Forestry schools have to provide the science and its interpretation for policy development and operations. It is no longer acceptable for the scientist to work in his/her laboratory and not get involved in encouraging the use of the results. This does not mean they have to be public advocates or spokespersons for a particular value. However, it does mean they have to understand how the research results apply to the day to day operations and policy development and make sure the appropriate people are informed.
Society is making a number of demands on foresters. The focus of these is to practice SFM, especially through the use of partnerships. Knowing what you want out of the forest and having a management framework to deliver on these objectives is critical in moving towards SFM. S&T plays a critical role in the implementation of the proposed analytical framework. Forestry schools provide the professionals necessary to effectively and efficiently implement the actions within the framework. The present and future foresters will need the skills and knowledge to meet society's demands and move toward SFM. Forestry schools, where the components of SFM are taught and researched in an integrated manner is the preferred model for helping the forest industry move towards SFM.
