Management of Carbon, Water, and Biodiversity Across Canada’s SFI Certified Forests

Abstract

Meeting future economic demands without compromising the needs of society, sustainable forest management has become a pressing issue for those involved in forestry. The primary focus of this research was to examine how land managers are accounting for conservation values such as carbon, water, and biodiversity in their long-term management plans. More specifically, this paper investigates the contribution of forest certification schemes such as, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), in the Canadian forest management framework. To investigate this research topic, a survey was distributed to fourteen land managers operating in the Pacific Maritime, Montane Cordillera, Boreal Plains, Boreal Shield, and Atlantic Maritime. The survey results indicate that SFI certification has led land managers to consistently focus on landscape level planning, protection of water quality and protection of special sites. Other indicators such as tree diversity, carbon management, and pest management within the SFI standard have varying degrees of focus due to geographic and policy differences.