The Wealth of Forests: Markets, Regulation, and Sustainable Forestry

These are turbulent, unpredictable, yet opportune times for Canadian forestry. Never before have competing demands on Canada’s forest resources been so great. At the same time, we are finally being forced to confront the sustainable limit of these resources. Now, the improbable has happened: government, industry, First Nationa, and NGOs appear to be part of an emerging consensus that industrial forestry in Canada must change.

The Wealth of Forests is a pioneering attempt to grapple with the policy implications of the transition to sustainable forestry. While much has been written on the theory and practice of sustainable forestry and on the relative merits of regulatory versus market approaches to environmental protection, these literatures have nnot as yet been bridged. Using illustrations based on recent developments in British Columbia forest policy, this collection provides that bridge by analyzing the potential and limits of market, regulatory, and other policy instruments as means of achieving sustainability.

Featuring new work by many of Canada’s leading forest policy scholars, this interdisciplinary collection is devoted to translating the concept of sustainability into practice in key areas of forest policy, including tenure, timber pricing, forest practices, land-use zoning, and eco-certification. The Wealth of Forests also considers how domestic and international legal regimes might constrain the adoption of policies that could bring us close to the elusive goal of sustainable forestry.