As
part of the Canadian Model Forest Network, the Western Newfoundland
Model Forest is involved in many joint projects that help advance
sustainable forest management across the country. Some of the work
we have collaborated on with other model forests across Canada is
outlined below.
Local Level
Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management
Achieving
sustainable forest management (SFM) is a complex challenge that
requires decision-makers to seek a balance between social, economic,
cultural, and environmental objectives for a forest area.
The pursuit
of sustainable forest management requires the direct monitoring
of effects resulting from our management practices and activities.
It is easy to measure a forest's progress from a single perspective:
a paper mill knows its bottom line, a scientist can monitor water
quality, a forest-dependent community can see jobs increase or disappear.
To demonstrate advances towards sustainability, however, one must
monitor the health of all these different aspects together.
Local level
indicators (LLI), which are developed to suit local and regional
conditions, provide the framework for monitoring on-the-ground changes
and assessing their influence on the many components of sustainable
forest management.
A model forest
is ideally suited to develop and effectively apply indicators of
sustainable forest management at the local level because of its
broad partnership base and perspectives representing a diversity
of forest values. All model forests in the Canadian Model Forest
Network have been working for a number of years on the development
and application of LLI.
From State of
the Forest reporting to predicting future forest condition through
computer modelling, model forests are putting their local level
indicators to work. Contact: lli@modelforest.net
*
excerpted from the CMFN Web site
CMF Network/CFS
Carbon Accounting Team:
The WNMF as a pilot site for carbon accounting
A joint project
between the Canadian Model Forest Network (CMFN) and the Canadian
Forest Service (CFS) has developed a computer-model that could ultimately
determine the amount of carbon stored in the nation’s forests,
as well as the impact forest operations have on current and future
carbon stocks.
The CMFN’s Local Level
Indicators (Carbon Accounting) Strategic Initiative and CFS’s
Carbon Accounting Team are collaborating on the project to develop,
test and implement a user-friendly, freely available, generic operational
scale carbon accounting model that may be applied anywhere in the
country.
The national carbon accounting
tool – CBM-CFS3 - will use current forest inventory data to
help forest managers better understand and manage the impacts of
their actions on carbon stocks and carbon stock changes.
The Western Newfoundland Model
Forest (WNMF) and the Lake Abitibi Model Forest (LAMF) were chosen
as model forest pilot sites to develop and test the carbon accounting
prototype. While testing occurred within these sites, the model
was developed to be generic so it may be applied to any forest management
planning process in Canada.
The area chosen within the WNMF
was a complete forest management district where both Corner Brook
Pulp and Paper Ltd. (CBPP) and the provincial Department of Natural
Resources have significant management responsibilities.
The WNMF test gave both the
Department of Natural Resources and the province’s two pulp
and paper companies a clear understanding of how CBM-CFS3 could
be used in association with a provincial wood supply analysis that
started in 2004. CBPP reported on carbon in its recently approved
CSA Certification process, and a woods supervisor for Abitibi Consolidated
Company of Canada has been given lead responsibility for carbon
accounting for the company.
Twenty-three participants trained
on CBM-CFS3 during a November 2004 workshop at the University of
Victoria. Another workshop is scheduled for March 2005 at the Université
de Moncton, where the model will be released publicly. Support material
for the model will include user guides, tutorials, and a science
guide, both in English and French.
Interest in this model is expected to increase since President Vladimir
Putin of Russia gave final approval to the Kyoto Protocol in November
2004. The protocol, ratified by both houses of Russia’s parliament,
commits 55 industrialized nations to make significant cuts in greenhouse
gas emissions by 2012.
Click here for more information
on provincial carbon accounting.
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