The following are highlights from a “Proposed Comprehensive Forest Policy Framework for Ontario”. The report of the Ontario Forest Policy Panel, 1993. It was adopted by MNRF and is still the framework for developing policy in Ontario, and is on the MNRF website. After consideration by the Ontario Legislature, the core principles were adapted and included in the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (1994). Click HERE for the original Policy Framework document
The people of Ontario are asking for clear and simple guidelines for forest use and management, but is there a simple answer to the question: How can we manage our forests better? The Forest Policy panel was established by the Government of Ontario as an independent group to find answers to this question.
Diversity Is The Key
The forests, the people and the communities of Ontario are diverse. The Panel found that diversity, not simplicity, is the key and strength for creating sound forest policy for Ontario into the 21st century. Diversity characterizes every aspect of our forests, so simple rules will not work.
Even the ways in which forests are important to Ontarians are diverse. For example, forests can support many different kinds of industries, helping forest-based communities become more stable and sustainable. Another example is the importance people attach to the role of Ontario’s forests in global and local environmental health.
The Policy Framework
The Panel was asked by Government to chart new directions for long-term forest policy. The panel consulted people across Ontario to help create a Comprehensive Forest Policy Framework.
The Framework is the beginning of a new era for forest management and policy in Ontario. The Panel found that Ontarians everywhere want forests to be managed in a balanced way, for a range of ecological, social and material values. The Panel also discovered that current forest policies are out of step with this new attitude. The Framework points the directions required for new forest policies.
In accordance with the Panel’s terms of reference, the Framework deals only with forest management and policy, and not with operational issues, Aboriginal land claims, or the overall future of the wood products industry.
Cornerstones of New Forest Policy
The Framework contains:
A Goal for Ontario’s forests
Eleven Strategic Objectives addressing major forest values
Sixteen Principles to guide people’s behaviour in forest use and management
A GOAL FOR ONTARIO’S FORESTS
Our goal is to ensure the long-term health of our forest ecosystems for the benefit of the local and global environment, while enabling present and future generations to meet their material and social needs.
The Framework also includes four Cornerstones which, taken together with the Goal, Strategic Objectives and Principles, underlie a new approach to the use and management of Ontario’s forests.
The four Cornerstones are:
A Broad Definition for Ontario’s Forests
Forest Sustainability
Community and Resource Use Sustainability
Adaptive Ecosystem Management
A Broad Definition for Ontario’s Forests
Forests are all around us. They exist in huge expanses in Northern Ontario, but also along streets and in backyards throughout the province. Ontarians must respect all their trees – urban and rural, planted and wild, seedling and old-timer, single and in stands. Each forest region – Deciduous (Carolinian) in the south, Great Lakes – St. Lawrence in the centre, Boreal in the north – is an integral part of our magnificent province. All the trees in Ontario must be considered as part of the forest if policy is to direct our actions and attentions effectively.
It is crucial that we see forests as ecosystems, not just trees. Forest ecosystems, while dominated by plants called trees, also include shrubs, herbs, mammals, birds, insects, microscopic creatures, soil, air, water and other components of nature.
PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINING FORESTS
Ontario will maintain ecological processes essential for the functioning of the biosphere, and conserve biological diversity in the use of forest ecosystems.
Large, healthy, diverse and productive forests are essential to the environmental, economic, social and cultural well-being of Ontario, both now and in the future.
Forest practices, including clearcutting and other harvest methods, will emulate, within the bounds of silvicultural requirements, natural disturbances and landscape patterns.
Forest ecosystem types that cannot be returned to similar and healthy forests will not be harvested.
Forest practices will minimize effects on soil, water, remaining vegetation, wildlife habitat and other values.
Forest Sustainability
Forest ecosystems occupy about nine of every ten square kilometres of land in the province. Since our own health depends on the health of ecosystems, then Ontario must focus attention on maintaining healthy forest ecosystems.
This is the central theme of forest sustainability – making sure the forest ecosystems we have are kept as forests, and keeping them in good condition. A difficult task, but essential. It will require everyone’s cooperation to define what “good condition” means, and then to work out what actions are needed to maintain or achieve it.
Forest sustainability is a new focus for policy. In the past, forest policy was dominated by timber considerations. People across Ontario are still concerned about the economy, but they told the Panel that forest sustainability must take priority in forest use and management, and they expect forest policy to ensure that it does.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES FOR FOREST SUSTAINABILITY
Biodiversity – To ensure that the current natural biological diversity of forests is not significantly changed and where necessary and practical, is restored.
Natural Heritage Forest Lands – To establish and maintain representative protected forest lands as part of Ontario’s natural heritage.
Water, Air and Soil Quality – To manage the forests of Ontario to conserve and enhance the quality of water, air and soil.
Community and Resource Use Sustainability
Many communities across Ontario are located in forests and depend on them for their existence. As a result, businesses and citizens feel a close connection with forests. These communities – especially the businesses and jobs in them – are vital. Therefore, while forest policy must ensure forest sustainability, it must at the same time enable communities and resource uses to be sustained. How will forest policy achieve this? The Forest Policy Framework calls for more information to be acquired and shared with Ontarians. The Framework directs authorities to manage the public forests for a wide range of uses and values. It also requires that the public be given opportunities for timely and effective participation in all decision-making about public forests. That way, forest managers and local people together can access available options for sustaining communities and resource uses.
PRINCIPLES FOR USING FORESTS
Long-term viability and sustainability of communities and forest-based businesses are vital. This is second only to the sustainability of forest ecosystems.
Ontarians have a right to use and enjoy their public forests. They also share a responsibility for forest stewardship.
All landowners have the right and obligation to set objectives for managing their forests, and the responsibility to manage them in an ecologically sound manner, as part of the overall environment.
Ontarians must respect the rights of forest owners.
Users will pay for their use of forests in relation to the benefits they receive.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES FOR COMMUNITY AND RESOURCE USE SUSTAINABILITY
Material Values
EMPLOYMENT – To encourage optimum levels and diversity of employment derived from Ontario’s forests while meeting all Strategic Objectives.
FIBRE AND WOOD – To be able to supply industrial and consumer wood needs while maintaining forest sustainability.
FOOD, FUR AND OTHER RENEWABLE FOREST GOODS – to provide for a sustainable harvest of food, fur and other renewable forest goods, while maintaining overall forest sustainability.
INVESTMENT AND REVENUE – To invest sufficiently to maintain forest sustainability. To ensure that revenues from forest uses make as great a contribution to forest sustainability as feasible, given market conditions.
TOURISM – to provide for a range of quality tourism opportunities in Ontario’s forests consistent with demand and forest sustainability.
Social Values
CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL FULFILLMENT – To protect cultural and spiritual values in Ontario’s forests.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING – To develop and apply the knowledge and understanding required to achieve forest sustainability.
RECREATION – To develop the optimum recreational potential of Ontario’s forest, consistent with forest sustainability and demand.
Adaptive Ecosystem Management
Adaptive Ecosystem Management means that learning occurs as part of management itself. It also means that all major parts of ecosystems, as well as the key interactions among those parts, are considered when important decisions are made. For example, managers will consider how animals and small plants might be affected when a stand of trees is cut and new stand established. Adaptive Ecosystem Management is holistic, long term, and requires everyone to respect the integrity of the Earth.
Forest ecosystems are still not well understood, and the required knowledge must come from real management experiences. Many forest decisions establish long-term patterns that, if incorrect, are difficult to reverse or redirect. In Adaptive Ecosystem Management, we learn from our mistakes and adjust our actions accordingly.
The four key steps in Adaptive Ecosystem Management are:
Ecosystem boundaries are defined for the primary components.
Goals and measurable targets for ecosystem conditions are developed.
Management strategies are designed and implemented to achieve the goals and targets.
Ecosystem conditions are monitored and compared with the goals and targets. The reasons for deviations are noted, and new directions are set as the process begins again.
The shift from management of individual forest resources to Adaptive Ecosystem Management must begin now but it will take time. A major obstacle is the lack of knowledge of Ontario’s forest ecosystems and how they respond to disturbance over the long term. New forest inventories and research are needed. The required investments must be made so participants in forest planning and policy-making have the information they need for effective assessment and evaluation of sustainable options.
PRINCIPLES FOR DECISION-MAKING
Sound science, public involvement, local knowledge and careful inventory will work together to produce effective decisions.
Consensus-building methods are to be used for forest decision-making.
Decision-makers will be accountable for their actions.
Policies will account for the differences among Ontario’s forest regions.
Decisions will be made as close to the situation as possible, respect local needs and desires, and be consistent with provincial direction.
Forest managers must inform the public of the links among forest ecosystems, objectives and management tools.
Making Progress
To guide forest policy-making into the 21st century, the Framework calls for implementation of Adaptive Policy Development. For success, the adaptive approach uses consultative processes focused on:
Connecting forest policy into other policies.
Ensuring through independent audits that the Framework is being followed.
Renewing the Framework at appropriate times.
Success also depends on clear communications and information. Ontarians have to make their needs and desires known to forest managers before policies and plans are in place. At the same time, managers need to inform the public about whether the forests meet the declared needs and desires. Ecosystems cannot produce limitless benefits.
The process of putting the Framework into practice can begin at both the local and provincial levels. Creative local action is vital to gaining much-needed understanding about what will work in the forests and communities. Provincial policy-makers must be informed of the results of diverse local experiments that try thoughtful new ways of managing and using forests.
The Framework includes a vigorous agenda for policy development, with both immediate priorities and a longer-term action plan. Within two years, the Government needs to focus on:
Forest sustainability, and implement Adaptive Ecosystem Management
People, and implement effective and efficient processes for public involvement in all forest decision-making
Community and resource use sustainability, and develop new policies for timber production, forest-based tourism, and forest investment and revenue.
A Diverse, Sustainable Future
Forests can enrich our lives in a variety of ways. Untapped opportunities arise from a powerful combination of diversities – across the forests, among the people, and in the economy. To build upon these diversities, we must shift our policy thinking from yesterday’s approaches to tomorrow’s needs for participation, flexibility, and adaptation.
When the Forest Policy Panel visited communities across Ontario in 1992, people were asked to think about how to make forest sustainability a reality in the future. We can make a sustainable future happen by planning and acting in concert with the Framework. It means we will truly begin to think globally and act locally, to think long term and act now. It means a productive balance of diversity of Ontario’s forests, its people and its communities.
The Forest Policy Panel urges all Ontarians to work together for a sustainable future by implementing the Comprehensive Forest Policy Framework.