POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
by Stephan Martineau & Miriam Mason Martineau
Please visit www.silvafor.org for the Silva plan, a complete resource management plan for the Slocan Valley.
Reviewing at the ongoing and long standing dispute over forest management
in the Slocan Valley, one begins to wonder if there actually exists a
solution. A solution would have to include the needs of all forest users
and of the ecosystem that surrounds us. A realistic solution would also
require a transition phase so that the population of the Slocan Valley
could gradually move towards the envisioned shift, without having to undergo
drastic, painful changes in their lives.
The Silva Forest Foundation has laid out an Ecosystem-based Plan for the
valley that provides a solution to the differing needs of the residents
and the natural environment of the valley, as well as the blueprint for
such a transition. It proposes an ecologically responsible timber cutting
level, and suggests continued employment in the timber sector through
more labor-intensive partial cutting. Increase in the manufacture of value-added
wood products and restoration of the degraded forest of past practices
are a further ingredient to creating jobs. These examples represent some
of the steps for an effective transition strategy to an ecosystem-based
economy and use of forests.
Once again we urge the Ministry of Forests to seriously consider the implementation
of the Silva Forest Foundation Ecosystem-based Plan for the entire Slocan
River Watershed. This would represent a very significant step in the direction
many residents of this watershed have been working towards and hoping
for.
Requirements for ecosystem-based models:
- * Ecological limits define appropriate areas for human activities
- * Substantial reductions to conventional Annual Allowable Cuts(AACs)
- * Alternatives to clearcutting
- * Value-added in all manufacturing activities, particularly timber.
- * A phased-in process of change for a specified transition period
- * Reasonable negotiations to balance ecological limits with short-term
social and ecological needs. The goal over time will be to move towards
all activities respecting ecological limits.
- * Informed community control. Decisions are based on the best economic,
and social information available. This means a transition from centralized
to local control.
- * Recognition and support for economic alternatives to forestry
and protection of the forest values these alternatives depend on.
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