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G21-P049 Promote the Ecological Health of Canada’s Forests

Official proposal

05/06/2021 12:55

Submitter Names

Michael Coon and Jenica Waymen

Ratification Vote Results: Adopted

Proposal

The GPC will support the adoption of ecological forestry principles and practices in the management of public and private forestlands across Canada, prioritizing the preservation, restoration and maintenance of old growth forests as key to forest ecosystem health.

Objective

Ensure that Canada’s forest ecosystems retain their natural ecological structure, provide the full range of ecological services, and, where damaged, are restored to their natural condition. Change forest management from a timber-based focus, with ecological health seen as a constraint on harvest, to an ecologically-based focus with timber as one of many benefits.

Benefits

Forest ecosystems provide essential ecosystem services – purifying air and water, fostering biological diversity, managing carbon sequestration and storage, providing resilience to climate change, and offering spiritual sustenance. Functioning forest ecosystems will provide economic benefits from truly sustainable management and harvesting of forest resources according to ecological forestry principles and standards of practice.

Supporting Comments from Submitter

The application of ecological forestry principles and practices could include the implementation of the following measures:

an end to clear cutting and the end to the replacement of public forests with monoculture tree farms
collaboration with First Nations in the development and implementation of forestry policy and practices
the establishment of education centres where foresters will be trained or retrained in ecoforestry principles and practices
new standards set by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to ensure that only forestry companies that practice ecological forestry are eligible to be certified by CSA as “sustainable”
have the Government of Canada provide conservation financing to First Nations holding time tenures so they can develop economic ecological alternatives to harvesting old growth
the current practice of spraying toxic pesticides on the forests in order to preserve fungal mycelial networks and pollinators which are essential to biodiversity and are being destroyed by toxic chemicals
provide federal compensation or other economic benefits to purchase back timber tenures currently held by logging companies.

Refer to The Trust for Sustainable Forestry website:

www.sustainableforestry.ca.

Refer to the Ecoforestry Institute Society/Wildwood website:

www.ecoforestry.ca. Wildwood is an example of an ecologically managed Old Growth Forest and ecoforestry teaching school

Books:
(a) Franklin Jerry F, Johnson K Norman, Johnson, Debora L, 2018. Ecological Forest Management. Waveland Press, Inc. 646 pages [in particular see pages 56-64 on Four Stages of Forest Development]

(b) Hammond Herb, 2009. Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning. Silva Forest Foundation.

Papers:
(a) Price K, Roburn A, MacKinnon A, 2009. Ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest. Forest Ecology and Management. 258:495-503

(b) https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-first-nations-conservationists-finance-protect-old-growth/

(c) Gorley, A. and Merkel, G. 2020. A New Future for Old Forests: A Strategic Review of How British Columbia Manages for Old Forests Within its Ancient Ecosystems.

Proponents: The Trust for Sustainable Forestry; Creatively United for the Planet Society