#896: Healthy Landscapes Program: Holistic Approach
Ecosystem based management is a new paradigm in forest management that has evolved over the last two decades.
The idea is to promote sustainability and maintain biodiversity by looking at the forest landscape in a more holistic way.
Dr David Andison is a landscape ecologist at the University of British Columbia. And he’s part of the Healthy Landscapes Program with fRI Research.
DR DAVID ANDISON : Right now how we manage complex ecosystems like landscapes, is we break them apart into pieces and we hand the management and the responsibility and the profit motive for each of them off to different agencies. So timber harvesting goes over here and fracking goes over here, water goes over here, wildlife management goes over here. Fire management goes off to a different spot. The idea of managing for ecosystem integrity is that if the sustainability of the ecosystem is maintained, the health of the ecosystem, then we’re going to get all of those services.
Dr Andison says it is important to manage social and economic values together, and not as competing interests to support forest sustainability.
Thanks today to the HEALTHY LANDSCAPES PROGRAM at
fRI RESEARCH
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Healthy Landscapes Program, fRI Research
The Healthy Landscapes Program, formerly known as the Natural Disturbance Program, looks at landscape change at a huge scale, such as Canada’s boreal forest.
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The workshops in Athabasca, Grande Prairie, Calgary and Edmonton are an invitation to people interested in forest sustainability and healthy landscapes to contribute their experiences with the forest and with ecosystem based management.
A dialogue is different in that it is about sharing experiences and perspectives in a way that fosters discussion and the generation of new ideas.
Forest management has never been simple. However, the introduction of a new idea like ecosystem- based management (EBM) has complicated things to the point where it has become di cult to identify the source(s) of either support or opposition. This makes it extremely difficult to have a meaningful conversation about challenges and opportunities of a new idea like EBM.
Through professionally-facilitated sessions, the Healthy Landscapes Program at fRI Research will openly explore the barriers and opportunities to applying ecosystem-based management in Alberta.
Information gained from these workshops will be collated and analyzed in preparation for a report with recommendations on further implementation of Ecosystem Based Management.
The Healthy Landscapes Program is supported by fRI Research with 25 industry and government partners across several provinces and territories.
Program Date: 2017-09-14