Canada's Boreal Forest Economy: Economic and Socioeconomic Issues and Research Opportunities [Natural Resources Canada, NRCAN]

Canada’s boreal forest economy faces many challenges and opportunities. The current industry structure reflects past resource and economic conditions, government policies, and industry strategy. As economic conditions and the resource change, industry, communities and governments must also adjust. Forest sectors vary from one region to another, but all boreal regions face similar challenges. Boreal forest industries face four main pressures: a changing resource base (reduced inventory, changed species mix); increased demands for environmental and social amenities; increased demands for non-timber values, and; increased competition in export markets. These will challenge the industries to remain competitive vis-à-vis other forest regions throughout the coming decades while also achieving other goals of sustainable forest management. To sustain competitiveness, Canadian boreal forest industries (timber and non-timber) require improved forest resource information and development of new tools to support investment and management decisions that, in turn, maintain and increase value derived from the many goods and services provided by Canada’s boreal forests.