PRESERVING NATURE THROUGH INTENSIVE PLANTATION FORESTRY - THE CASE FOR FORESTLAND ALLOCATION WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM BRITISH-COLUMBIA

Historically British Columbia's forests were managed under the implici t assumption that virtually the whole forested land base would, one da y, be available for timber production. The BC Forest Service and licen cees incorporate non-timber values into timber production plans throug h a process of ''integrated resource management'' which attempts to co nsider wildlife, riparian habitat, recreation, water flows, grazing an d other forest uses in each decision about each hectare where logging is to occur. Under this extensive form of management, silvicultural in vestments are low. This policy has clearly failed either to satisfy le gitimate demands from the environmental community or to produce the pr edictably high levels of timber harvest needed to sustain the forest p roducts industry and industry-dependent communities. The core problem is that, despite a vast forest estate in British Columbia, land has be come scarce. It is therefore logical to substitute capital, labour and knowledge for land in forest production processes. Such a policy coul d lead to substantial higher, sustainable timber harvests as well as a system of parks that covers more than half the Province. Implementing such a policy requires a change in forest management approach to zone the landscape and manage each zone intensively for a specific purpose . For the bulk of commercial timber production, intensively managed pl antations appear to represent the best technological option. New direc tions in British Columbia's forest policy - land-use zoning, a new for est practice code, and dedicated capital for silvicultural investments - generally move towards this objective, but implementation remains u ncertain. Major impediments include dysfunctional forest tenure arrang ements and a comparatively poor information base.