Innovative Ways of Forest Conservation for Sustainable Forest Management in Canada

Canadian Forestry and Conservation – Innovative Ways of Forest Conservation for Sustainable Forest Management in Canada
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Innovative Ways of Forest Conservation for Sustainable Forest Management in Canada
Introduction
Canada’s potential for progressive forest conservation and management practices is immense. The forested regions of Canada are faced with chronic environmental conflicts of try to balance ecological integrity with socio-economic needs. With new markets for Canadian forest products, there is need for sound environmental performance and greater scientific understanding of Canada forest activities. Canada forest is undergoing significant changes due to climate change. The country has witnessed increased disturbance posing risks to the industry. Innovative solutions combined with scientific based policy solutions and mitigating strategies approaches are needed to help policy makers develop proper forest management. For economic benefits more innovative strategies needs to reduce production costs (Thanh and Leblon, 2011). Understanding the forest values like carbon storage, water purification and recreational use that affect the long-term sustainability of Canada forest is key to a sustainable future for Canadian forest sector (The State of Canada's Forests, 2013).
Changes in Forest Areas
Forest areas in Canada have changed over time; the global levels of production of wood are falling short of the increasing demand for wood. The world is turning to Canada because of its vast forests. Furthermore, Canada forest ecosystem is exposed to natural disturbances like insect infestation, disease outbreaks, weather events affecting the forest growth and structures. These disturbances threaten forest value especially timber, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities (The State of Canada's Forests, 2013). Natural disturbances form part of the ecosystem by maintaining biodiversity and shaping the forest structure. For sustainability, natural events are useful as it facilitates natural regeneration and recovery of the ecosystem. As much as natural disturbances are useful when left unchecked results to forest degradation. For instance, by 2011 close to 9.2 million hectares of forest tree were killed by mountain pine beetle, reducing the forest tree coverage (The State of Canada's Forests, 2013). Pine beetle spread to Canada creating risks to pine forest.
In Alberta, more than 1.3 million hectares of forest has been affected by the migration of beetles causing a major decline in tree coverage. Another threat to the forest area is the outbreaks of budworm. The last outbreak covered 50 million hectares, since 2003 the budworms affects more than 500,000 hectares of Douglas-fir forest annually (The State of Canada's Forests, 2013).
Harmful insects like the emerald borer and the pine beetles are likely to expand to the northwest forest areas. However, their survival during winter and summer might limit the expansion. In future, climate and other forest-related changes will affect the forest pathogens; as a result, the harvest will fluctuate over time. Based on these findings, harvest related disturbances are insignificant compared to the areas disturbed by insect or diseases ...