Canadian Sustained Yield Management — Expectations and Realities

Abstract

There are gaps between expectations and realities with respect to sustainability in the forests of Canada. While all forestry agencies have a policy of sustained yield, there is public confusion over what is being sustained, on what area, and for what period of time. Given the scale of forestry in Canada, and the fact of predominantly public ownership of the forest, this is a dangerous situation. At present, the claims of professional managers that sustainability is a reality in the forests do not enjoy public acceptance.There is a tendency, both in the profession and among the public, to speak of sustainability as an absolute. However, there are a multiplicity of features that may be sustained, and there is an infinite number of possible levels at which each of those features could be sustained. It is argued the principle source of confusion lies in the manner in which the concept of sustainability is converted to the reality of what is sustained in a particular forest. Several variants of approach are examined.Sustainability will be the dominant issue in forestry over the next decade. The expectations of public owners of the forest resource, and the realities of what is achievable in that resource, are so out of line that some major changes will occur. The situation can only be fixed by changing the expectations, changing the reality, or changing both. The degree to which professional foresters play a leading role in forcing those changes will be crucial to forestry, and to the probability of achieving sustainability.