8-3a Listening - Deforestation

The world is a big place, and at times it may seem that what we do could not possibly have an impact on it. Yet, as we've seen with deforestation, there are a great deal of consequences that accompany it. When forests are cut and there's no assurance that they are replanted or allowed to regrow in some way, then species die, land is destroyed, and the forests are lost to future generations. A lot of the reasons for the severe deforestation practices around the world stem from the governments of the countries they take place in. There is a lack of direction from officials and little to no plan, short or long term, that loggers must adhere to. When it comes to Canada, we'll see that although there is a degree of deforestation there, the situation is much better than in other parts of the world because of the presence of government regulations and a proven commitment to sustainable forestry.

The world is a big place, and at times it may seem that what we do could not possibly have an impact on it. Yet, as we've seen with deforestation, there are a great deal of consequences that accompany it. When forests are cut and there's no assurance that they are replanted or allowed to regrow in some way, then species die, land is destroyed, and the forests are lost to future generations. A lot of the reasons for the severe deforestation practices around the world stem from the governments of the countries they take place in. There is a lack of direction from officials and little to no plan, short or long term, that loggers must adhere to.

When it comes to Canada, we'll see that although there is a degree of deforestation there, the situation is much better than in other parts of the world because of the presence of government regulations and a proven commitment to sustainable forestry. Over 40% of Canada is made up of forests, which means they cover over 4 million square kilometers. Imagine the size of that! They are 500,000 square kilometers larger than the country of India, just dense forest. And it accounts for 10% of all the forests on the planet. Canadians often take this vast resource for granted and fail to realize the vital role it plays in the environment.

These great woodlands purify the water, stabilize the soil, and are a crucial part of the cycle of nutrients in both life and death. They help to regulate the climate and store up carbon from the atmosphere to fight against global warming, not to mention the shelter and food they provide for countless species of wildlife. Add to this the opportunities they provide for the people living in the country through the forest industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers and pumps billions of dollars into the country's economy. In fact, nearly $24 billion in 2011. Needless to say, Canada's forests are important on many levels and need to be managed and looked after to make sure that they are here for many generations to enjoy and benefit from.

Canada's forests and their management are overseen by the Canadian Forest Service, which is part of Natural Resources Canada, a government department that works with all the provinces and territories in relation to the welfare of the forests and their use. The forest industry itself has three main subsectors. The mainstay of the industry is the first step, which is the actual logging. Various logging companies get approval to remove trees from a given area and take their workers and equipment into those areas. They are also responsible for getting the trees to the mills and manufacturing plants. This primary industry sector, one that extracts raw materials, makes up nearly one quarter of forestry revenue at $5.3 billion in 2011.

The next subsector produces the highest revenue at nearly $10 billion, the sawmill, where the rough trees are transformed into lumber, the long boards used in the construction of houses and furniture. No final products are made here, and it's what is known as secondary industry, where raw materials are processed into a more usable form. Another form of mill and the third subsector of forestry is pulp and paper manufacturing, which in 2011 had a revenue of over $8.5 billion. Rather than making the trees into boards for construction, they are ground into small pieces to make pulp, a wet mash of wood that is used in the manufacture of paper for newspapers, writing paper, cardboard, or even toilet paper.

So that's the basic makeup of Canada's forest industry, but let's get back to deforestation. It's important when discussing all of this in the context of deforestation what the difference between that and forestry is. In simple terms, deforestation occurs when trees are cut and not replanted, whereas with forestry, there is a concerted effort to rebuild the forest once it's cut, such that it can be harvested again in the future. Deforestation rates have decreased since the 1970s in Canada, and it now affects less than 0.02% of Canada's forests, which is only 0.4% of the world.

The majority of the deforestation in Canada actually comes from other sectors of the economy. Agriculture accounted for over half of Canada's deforestation at 53%, with urban development coming in second at 19%. The biggest way the forest industry contributes to deforestation, where they cannot replant or regrow trees, is in the roads made to reach forests and transport logs out, and this makes up 10% of the total. Hydroelectric projects and other types of industries, such as mining, make up the remaining 10% and 8% respectively.

This is basically where the idea of sustainability and planning for the future within the forest industry comes in. Canadians as a whole have come to expect a higher standard when it comes to the environment and how their government goes about managing it in terms of conserving ecosystems and balancing the economic and social use of forests. Sustainable forest management, referred to as SFM, is much different from the approach in the past, which was very timber-focused and more like what can be seen in the areas suffering from more severe deforestation problems. It is an adaptive way of looking at the problem of managing this huge resource and sees forestry employees constantly assessing and re-evaluating forest practices using the latest scientific techniques and input from the public and other industries.

Innovative approaches such as integrated landscape management sees the government working together with different land users and stakeholders to make plans over an entire landscape rather than just an individual section of land. For example, the oil sands project in Alberta requires that land first be cleared before the sands are lifted and the oil is extracted from them. Coordinating together ensures that timber is properly harvested from the area and that newly replanted areas that are not ready for harvesting go untouched until the time is right. In British Columbia, this strategy has seen mining and forestry industries working together to share roads through forests rather than each industry building their own, thus reducing deforestation in this way.

As was mentioned a few times, part of stopping or limiting deforestation is the practice of replanting trees once they have been cut. This is a process known as reforestation. In Canada, however, there is another process known as afforestation, which involves planting trees on areas where there has been no harvesting of trees and it is unlikely trees would ever begin growing there on their own. Still, the vast majority of replanting is reforestation, not afforestation. Because of these two practices, Canada's annual rate of deforestation declined over the past two decades from 650 square kilometers in 1990 to only 450 square kilometers in 2010.

Compared to other nations, Canada has far less of a problem with deforestation and the issues that it can cause. That said, deforestation is not an easy process to reverse as forests can take years to regrow and be re-harvested. So being cautious and trying to reduce deforestation, even when it doesn't pose a huge national problem, is not a bad idea. Canada's plan for managing its forests in a sustainable way does have its critics who believe it should do more. But for those nations who do have these problems, perhaps it can serve as a model of how to better manage such an important resource.