Selective Integration: Knowledge and Interests in the Model Forest Program

Abstract

This essay examines the federal Model Forest Program (1992-1997), focussing on the process by which model forests were selected at the start of the program. The outcomes of this process suggest that ecological ideas cannot be readily separated from the prevailing material interests, including forestry experts, that advocate them. This study supports the concept of partial integration of new knowledge into resource policy, in which some ideas are favoured while others are discarded or modified so as to fit the orthodox point of view. As a result of the selectivity of expert interpretation of ecological ideas, the program fell short of innovation. This conservatism will constrain the choices available to Canadian forest management in the future.