A Forestry Canada Approach to Environmental Forestry

The continued use and development of the forest environment requires that it be treated in a manner that ensures sustainable development. The forest ecosystem available for commercial exploitation has been shown to be finite and human intervention on a large scale is needed to replace, renew and rehabilitate these forests. An environmental forestry research program must have as its goal a sustainable forest. To attain this, research must be conducted on the forest ecosystem, on monitoring and characterizing the forest, on protecting the forest and on renewing the forest. This constitutes the Forestry Canada program. This research will assist in the development of practices needed for the healthy functioning of the forest ecosystem, for industrial forest management, recreational forestry and the preservation of our forests for future generations. Forestry Canada has made major contributions in the whole field of environmental protection of the forest ecosystem. The examples presented here demonstrate Forestry Canada's commitment to environmentally-sound forest management practices. Those practices allow development of the forest for the benefit of all Canadians and for the forest.