By Scott Davis*
This Abstract has been submitted to the International Model Forest Network, and relates to the following Model Forest Principles: commitment to sustainability; knowledge sharing, capacity building and networking.
The Eastern Ontario Model Forest (EOMF) is an organization of more than 300 diverse members and partners dedicated to fostering the concept of sustainable forest management and supporting the application of these techniques on the ground, in a forested landscape that includes community forests, private land and Crown Forests. For seventeen years the EOMF has served as a forestry resource centre for the professional and public sectors of eastern Ontario, focusing on forest science, education, partnership building and innovative approaches to sustainable forest management. Our vision of forests for seven generations is a mosaic of healthy forest ecosystems within a landscape of rural and urban areas throughout eastern Ontario, providing long-term economic, social, and spiritual benefits, while ensuring a healthy environment that is valued by all.
In 1999 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification became a topic of interest in the EOMF region. The FSC is an international, membership-based, non-profit organization that supports environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. This interest was from forest owners, members and partners to determine if FSC certification is an appropriate and applicable forest management option for small unorganized private and community forest owners in the region. The original goal of the program was to arrange 20 forest owners and seek FSC certification for their lands. In 2003 the EOMF received a FSC certificate from SmartWood, a program of the Rainforest Alliance that covered an area of 1700 hectares. This project is located in the Great Lakes St. Lawrence forest region located at Latitude 45 degrees north Longitude 76 degrees west.
In Ontario, forest owners generally lack the technical skills to implement forest operations on their land and therefore seek and pay for professional services such as: forest management planning, tree marking and operations monitoring. These owners are a collection of individuals and no current structure for management or timber sales exist. The EOMF viewed this project as an opportunity to bring forest owners together for a common cause and to achieve FSC certification for them as a ways and means towards responsible forest management considering environmental, economic and social principles.
During the course of the project the EOMF developed guidebooks, information manuals and toolkits to assist forest owners and forest product producers achieve forest and chain of custody certification. These resources have been shared extensively with other individuals and organizations throughout the forest region and beyond. The EOMF has acted as a transparent entity willing to assist others with similar goals.
In January 2008 the EOMF was recertified by SmartWood. Currently the EOMF program includes two distinct forest owners groups representing over 6500 hectares of privately owned forest and 35,000 hectares included from 5 community forests. This increase in the FSC certified land base encouraged local forest industry to seek and achieve chain-of custody certification for their operations. Six local sawmills now have the ability to market and sell their forest products as FSC certified. The EOMF was also the first organization in Canada to enable the sale of FSC certified maple syrup as a non timber forest product and is investigating the FSC logo use on Christmas trees. The EOMF program continues to grow and shares lessons learned within and beyond the target area.
*Scott Davis
Scott Davis has been the Forest Certification Coordinator since the inception of the project in 2000. Scott has 15 years of private and community forest extension experience. Scott has delivered many presentations in Canada and the USA on FSC certification as a viable option for private and community forest owners.