What is sustainable forest management?

While timber is a renewable material and can even be used to generate energy, forests are the source of logs and need to be managed in such a way to provide consistent quantities of timber in perpetuity. That is the essence to the concept of ‘sustainability’.

There are measures of what is sustainable for most of our natural resources, whether it’s water supply, agricultural outputs, or minerals. Mined products, while not renewable, can be provided at a sustained level and recycled, for a time, but eventually the accessible raw sources decline and supply levels cannot be sustained.

Sustainable forest management (SFM) refers to the management of our private and public forests to ensure they continue to provide not only a sound supply of renewable timber for present and future generations, but also maintain their environmental values and social services.