CORNER BROOK - The Western Newfoundland Model Forest (WNMF) Partnership, which was slated to conclude its third five-year phase on March 31, 2007, has been granted a three-month extension while partners await a funding announcement on a new forest-based initiative.

The WNMF is concluding its 15th year of operation as part of the Canadian Model Forest Network, an initiative of Natural Resource Canada (NRCan) - Canadian Forest Service. For the past few months, WNMF staff members have been finalizing current projects in anticipation of the program’s conclusion.

In October 2006, the WNMF’s partners submitted a new five-year proposal seeking funding under CFS’s proposed Forest Communities Program, which will link people interested in sustaining their communities and the natural resources around them with similar communities around the globe. There are currently more than 40 Model Forests worldwide, and along with its ties to the national network, the WNMF is discussing potential projects with Model Forests in Russia and Argentina.

The WNMF’s partners bring together a wide range of forest- and natural resource-based organizations across Newfoundland and Labrador. They see the new Forest Communities Program as an excellent opportunity to delve further into sustaining socio-economic community development from a forest-sector perspective, says WNMF General Manager Jim Taylor.

“Our program is really about bringing Newfoundlanders and Labradorians together with natural resource experts and developing our own solutions to issues facing our province’s natural resources,” he says. “We aren’t stopping there – we also intend to find investment dollars to ensure practical results on the ground, and to find ways to create better integration of environmental and societal values.”

Canada’s resource-based communities, such as those in the White Bay, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and Humber Valley areas, are facing new challenges in light of downsizing occurring in forest-sector industries. The new program, when approved, will take a broad, landscape level approach to addressing these transition challenges, and will involve a wide cross-section of natural resource managers and community stakeholders.

While all existing Model Forests were welcome to submit proposals under the new program, the Call for Proposals was an open, national competition, with only six to eight sites expected to be chosen. The funding announcement was expected earlier this spring, but has since been delayed.

“The extension of funding for our current program will allow us to bridge the gap between the Model Forest program and what will be an exciting new opportunity for our partnership and the region’s forest-based communities,” says Taylor.

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