Strengthen Sustainable Forest Management: Goals and Strategies

1
Strengthen Sustainable Forest Management Goals
and Strategies

• Identifying Knowledge Gaps to Support
  Sustainability in BCs Natural Resource Sector
• Think Tank Presentation
• August 15-17, 2000
• by Stuart Gale and Wendy Klyne

Southern Interior Forest Extension and Research
Partnership
2
First Nations

• Goal 1
• Indigenous Knowledge is incorporated into forest
  management.
• Problem Statement
• How do we gather and utilize indigenous knowledge?

3
First Nations

• Strategies
• Adopt measures that satisfactorily address
  aboriginal interest issues until indigenous
  knowledge is fully incorporated into forest
  management
• Determine methods to protect the intellectual
  property rights to indigenous knowledge while and
  after it is gathered
• Research the indigenous knowledge database and
  determine how it can be incorporated into
  resource management

4
Biodiversity

• Goal 1
• To understand the dynamics of natural and human
  disturbance agents temporally and spatially
  across the landscape
• To develop the ability to emulate the structure
  and dynamics of natural disturbance in forest
  management practices and,
• To determine how much of the range of variability
  of natural disturbances can be emulated by forest
  management practices.

5
Biodiversity

• Problem Statement
• How can we achieve a better understanding of all
  dimensions and scales of natural disturbance
  agents (fire, disease, insects, and climate)
  which influence sustainable forest management?

6
Biodiversity

• Strategies
• Benchmarking retrospective exploration of the
  historical patterns of natural and human
  disturbance
• Synthesis of existing information
• Monitoring of current disturbances (type,
  scale, impact)

7
Biodiversity

• Goal 2
• Incorporation of knowledge of ecosystem structure
  and function to enhance SFM planning and
  practice.
• Problem Statement
• How can we acquire and apply detailed knowledge
  of above and below ground ecosystem structure
  (including CWD, canopy and understory
  development, wildlife trees), function and
  process (successional patterns, competition, snag
  and CWD decay rates, trophic interactions) to
  sustainable forest management?

8
Biodiversity

• Strategies
• Inventories of species, populations and
  communities, and their distribution.
• Quantification of population and community
  dynamics.
• Quantification and distribution and dynamics of
  ecosystem condition (horizontal, vertical
  structure).
• Characterisation of trophic interactions.
• Retrospective studies of species, populations and
  communities.

9
Biodiversity

• Goal 3
• Conserve species sensitive to forest and range
  practices through increased knowledge and
  improved management.

10
Biodiversity

• Problem Statement
• How can we increase our knowledge of species
  status, inventory, habitat requirements and
  population process and demographics to conserve
  all species sensitive to forest and range
  practices?
• How will current, future and cumulative forest
  practices and other human impacts affect
  individuals and populations of sensitive species,
  including coarse filter species at all spatial
  and temporal scales?

11
Biodiversity

• Strategies
• Synthesis of existing information
• Inventory and status of individual sensitive
  species and habitats
• Assessment of sensitive species habitat
  requirements across all scales
• Determination of the impact of forest practices
  on habitat requirements

12
Biodiversity

• Strategies
• Experimentation and hypothesis testing of
  appropriate species management treatments
• Development of risk assessment methodologies of
  both individuals and populations
• Implementation of operational trials and
  associated adaptive management
• Development of habitat supply models and
  incorporation into decision-making processes

13
Economic

• Goal 1
• To develop/improve forest estate planning models
  that will allow resource managers, scientists and
  researchers to appropriately apply tools to
  sustainable forest management planning issues.
• Problem Statement
• How do we develop and improve forest estate
  models (FEM) to answer questions on wood flow,
  non-timber values, habitat supply, economics, as
  operational decision making tools to achieve SFM?

14
Economic

• Strategies
• Upgrade the timber and non-timber data sets used
  in FEM as required (will vary according to
  management unit). These sets may be map products
  or they may be revised netdown figures derived
  from adaptive management or corporate data base
  analysis.
• Improve our knowledge of the habitat requirements
  and relationships of key wildlife species.
• Improve our knowledge of patch size
  configuration and deployment in FEMs.

15
Economic

• Strategies
• Cooperatively settle current differences of
  opinion between agencies, as to the FPC, Land Use
  Planning and higher level plan rule sets, and the
  tradeoffs needed between some rule sets.
• Benchmark current spatial models against the
  FSSIM model used in TSR.
• Develop functionality in FSSIM and spatial models
  with regard to partial cutting and natural
  disturbance, particularly in the inoperable land
  base.

16
Economic

• Strategies
• Develop common FEM output reports to assess
  tradeoffs between forest and non-forest values.
  Common economic output reports are suggested
• Utilize FEMs in the testing of forest
  certification assumptions and standards that will
  ultimately provide for SFM.
• Utilize FEMs in tracking and monitoring global
  carbon cycling in at multiple spatial and
  temporal scales

17
Economic

• Goal 2
• To develop strategies and methods that can
  maintain and/or enhance economic viability
  without compromising environmental standards.
• Problem Statement
• How do we maintain economic viability without
  compromising environmental standards?

18
Economic

• Strategies
• Use FEM and related analyses to detect cases of
  overlapping objectives, e.g. cases where certain
  FPC guidelines are in fact met by other
  guidelines
• Initiate an expert review of the business
  processes and procedures and identify areas of
  inefficiency with low risk to SFM
• Determine if current initiatives such as log
  trading models may improve the profitability of
  groups of licensees in particular management
  units.

19
Economic

• Goal 3
• To achieve SFM and gain increased market access
  through forest certification.
• Problem Statement
• Will SFM achieve certification, and to what
  degree will it influence market access?

20
Economic

• Strategies
• Develop models to determine how current FPC
  management practices are affecting certain CI
  and compare these findings with the differing
  management regimes proposed under certification
  systems.
• Investigate the relationship between sustainable
  forest management at stand and landscape level
  and forest certification (which is primarily a
  stand level process).
• Provide the background data necessary to
  implement regional certification.

21
Economic

• Strategies
• Conduct benchmark productivity, soil
  conservation, genetic diversity and related
  studies on commonplace harvesting and
  silvicultural practices, to determine their
  sustainability.
• Develop a tracking and monitoring system which
  will give forest industry licensees, communities,
  government and forest products consumers the
  ability to monitor the performance of SFM.
• Monitor market share and confirm effectiveness of
  certification efforts

22
Economic

• Goal 4
• To identify tenure or stumpage reforms that will
  increase the competitiveness of the industry and
  improve on SFM.
• Problem Statement
• Is the existing tenure and stumpage system an
  impediment to the competitiveness of the forest
  industry and the achievement of SFM?

23
Economic

• Strategies
• Promote a high level, provincial review and
  cost/benefit analysis of both existing systems
  and possible alternatives, with the objective of
  maximizing the benefits to the province, reducing
  the administrative complexities of the existing
  systems and achieving higher standards of forest
  management.
• Facilitate pilot projects that test and document
  innovative ideas related to stumpage and tenure.

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Water

• Goal 1
• Within five years adopt best forest and range
  management practices that allow us to manage our
  water resources on a sustainable basis including
• Water quality (including temperature, nutrients,
  and waterborne disease)
• Water Quantity (including peak and low flows)
• Associated Risks (including catastrophic events)
• Physical Characteristics (including channel
  morphology)
• Aquatic Habitats.

25
Water

• Problem Statement
• Which forest practices (including forestry and
  crown range activities) will allow us to manage
  the following water resources (both surface and
  groundwater) on a sustainable basis?
• Strategies
• Understand the natural state for each water
  attribute
• Understand how current and historic practices
  affect water resources and attributes
• Determine the best practices

26
Water

• Goal 2
• To develop and implement water-based information,
  information collection strategies and tools
  needed to adequately manage the forest and range
  resources and support forest certification.
• Problem Statement
• Which water-based information and information
  collection strategies, and tools do we need to
  adequately manage the forest resource? Do we
  have sufficient water-based information to
  support forest certification?

27
Water

• Strategies
• Determine information gaps
• Conduct research to determine appropriate level
  of information collection
• Develop tools and methods to apply information to
  areas where no information is available

28
Soil

• Goal 1
• To understand the role of soil organisms in
  forest ecosystem functioning and identify the
  effects of forest management practices on them.
• Problem Statement
• The role of soil organisms is critical to the
  maintenance of biological productivity and above
  and below ground biological diversity, healthy
  ecosystem function and the provision of forest
  and range goods and services. We do not
  understand the impacts of management on soil
  organisms or on the interactions between soil
  organisms.

29
Soil

• Strategies
• Evaluation and synthesis of existing knowledge
  of
• Contributions of soil organisms to biodiversity
  and functioning of forest ecosystems
• Effects of forest management practices on soil
  organisms
• Mushrooms as a product of healthy soil ecosystems

30
Soil

• Strategies
• Identify opportunities and initiate soil
  ecological investigations that build on existing
  field installations where other aspects of
  ecological functioning and or silvicultural
  treatment response are being studied
• Production of taxonomic atlases for key forest
  soil organisms which incorporate knowledge of
  ecological roles and distribution

31
Soil

• Goal 2
• Forest managers will have criteria and tools for
  identifying sites where productivity can be
  enhanced, and for choosing the most beneficial
  treatments.
• Problem Statement
• How can we increase the productive capability of
  forest and range soils in an ecologically
  sustainable fashion?

32
Soil

• Strategies
• Review, synthesize and disseminate existing
  knowledge of treatment responses (by tree species
  and ecosystem type) to provide guidance to
  managers and identify high priority gaps
• Secure, maintain and re-measure existing
  installations to ensure that maximum benefit is
  derived from this investment
• Expand or add installations to address identified
  tree species, ecosystems and treatment gaps

33
Soil

• Strategies
• Conduct complementary monitoring to verify that
  treatment responses observed experimentally are
  realized operationally use these observations
  to suggest new hypotheses for research and to
  refine decision-making tools

34
Soil

• Goal 3
• Research will ensure that soil information is
  available with which to refine Forest Practices
  Code guidelines, TSR assumptions and improve site
  level soil management practices.
• Problem Statement
• Soil disturbance from forest management practices
  can reduce long-term productivity and adversely
  affect other resources. This is reflected in a
  number of FPC provisions and in netdown
  assumptions used in TSR.

35
Soil

• Strategies
• Define and evaluate the existing information base
• Examine existing research installations for
  relevance to this problem
• Support existing installations that represent a
  significant historical investment and have a high
  potential for producing solutions
• Articulate gaps that could be addressed and rank
  them in order of priority

36
Social

• Goal 1
• To have research and access to knowledge so that
  Social and Economic values are utilized in
  sustainable forest management, adaptive
  management and decision making processes.
• Problem Statement
• How do we more effectively incorporate social and
  economic concerns in sustainable forest
  management, adaptive management and decision
  making processes?

37
Social

• Strategies
• Identify and measure social and economic values
• Integrate social and economic values with
  bio-physical information
• Integrate social and economic values with
  decision-making processes
• Evaluate the extent and benefits of social value
  analysis in resource planning processes
• Consider social and economic values from local,
  regional, provincial and global scales

38
Social

• Goal 2
• To incorporate community values in local SFM
  through comprehensive community involvement.
• Problem Statement
• How can community-based forest management
  contribute to sustainable forest management?

39
Social

• Strategies
• Define activities and processes that contribute
  to community-based forest management
• Evaluate community forest pilots
• Evaluate other community-based forest management
  initiatives (partnerships)
• Disseminate research results to communities

40
Social

• Goal 3
• To have public participation processes that
  include a full representation of public interests
  and proactive input into the processes.
• Problem Statement
• How do we improve public participation processes
  in British Columbia?

41
Social

• Strategies
• Evaluate the effectiveness of PPPs
• Explore alternative frameworks and to evaluate
  their effectiveness
• Develop models for effective public participation

42
Terrain - Geomorphology

• Goal 1
• Sites that are susceptible to landslides are
  identified and management practices tailored to
  site conditions.
• Problem Statement
• What management practices can be used to reduce
  the likelihood of induced landslides?

43
Terrain - Geomorphology

• Strategies
• Better identification of terrain susceptible to
  post harvest landslides
• Develop better, cost-effective road building
  techniques in marginally unstable terrain

44
Terrain - Geomorphology

• Goal 2
• Improved terrain stability maps will be completed
  for high priority areas reflecting more reliable
  information about Terrain stability including a
  risk analysis.
• Problem Statement
• How can we improve our ability to predict terrain
  that is susceptible to landslides, and identify
  the risk associated with landslides?

45
Terrain - Geomorphology

• Strategies
• Development of landslide risk methods appropriate
  to mapping
• Additional terrain attributes studies done

46
Global Climate Change

• Problem Statement
• Forest and range ecosystems and their human uses
  are profoundly affected by climate change. In
  turn, forest and range management practices are
  an important human influence on the global carbon
  cycle. How do we measure and allow for the
  implications of global climate change in SFM
  models?

47
Global Climate Change

• Goal
• Understand the potential impacts of climate
  change on forest and range resources and
  implications for management (e.g., the effects on
  biodiversity, First Nations traditional cultural
  use, water, socioeconomic, soil, etc.) and,
• Understand the impacts of management on carbon
  cycling.

48
Process Issues

• Performance measures -- need to consider
  limitations of scientists in being able to ensure
  that research is incorporated into management and
  operations
• May be repetition of goals and strategies across
  groups -- need to ensure integration into one
  overall goal to avoid repetition in call for
  proposals