Sustainable forest management requires that today’s decisions involve a balance between social, economic, and environmental factors. Ontario has a flexible, adaptive and comprehensive system of legislation, regulations, policies and technical guides, for forest management that promotes public consultation and sustainable resource management.
Ontario's sustainable forest management commitments:
- ensures the long-term health of forest ecosystems while balancing environmental, economic and social benefits both now and in the future
- embodies the need to conserve biodiversity
- involves clearly defining desired future forest conditions and ensuring that actions taken are compatible with maintaining or achieving those conditions during forest management planning.
- depends on the use of a widely accepted framework of sustainable forest management criteria and indicators that together describe forest sustainability
- relies on periodic assessments of forest ecosystem health and socio-economic conditions and public reporting to ensure accountability and transparency in decision-making and to demonstrate that sustainable forest management is being achieved on the ground.
