Thinking and acting differently for sustainable management of the boreal forest

Sustainable forest management has replaced sustained yield as the new manag ement strategy for most countries and forest companies. This concept has ge nerated a lot of interest and discussion, and a great deal of effort is bei ng made to modify current forestry practices to be sustainable. In this pap er, we argue that the still somewhat vague concept of sustainable forest ma nagement calls for a substantial modification in our way of thinking about and practising forestry. To move toward that goal, we recognize important s ocial and economic challenges to sustainable management and suggest nine es sential notions: 1) manage the forest ecosystem as a whole and not in parts nor only for the crop species; 2) conserve a significant proportion of the boreal forest (i.e,, at least 12%); 3) practice intensive forestry on a sm all portion of the land to recover the fibre lost from notions 1 and 2; 4) strive for innovation in thinking and acting; 5) foster research and develo pment to support notion 4; 6) balance regional needs with that of the globa l community; 7) encourage public participation; 8) consider the impact of s ubstantial change in climate over the next 100 years (or next rotation); an d 9) substitute regulations that are adaptive for those that are restrictiv e, An example of the kind of silviculture that could be used in ecosystem m anagement for the black spruce forest is also discussed.