The Business Of Sustainable Forestry Case Study Vernon Forestry

In 1990, with the forests of British Columbia the focus of economic, environmental, and social conflict over resource management, British Columbia's Ministry of Forests established the British Columbia Forest Resources Commission. At the time the public was vocal in its concern over the visual impacts of clearcuts. Forest communities were dissatisfied over the loss of jobs because small operators were unable to gain access to timber and with the processing of harvested trees outside the region; and in those communities demand was rising to develop smaller value-added wood product manufacturing. The commission was mandated to examine the state of the province's land base, recommend ways to improve its management, and address the economic and social issues.In 1993, the commission recommended that the provincial government conduct a pilot project to evaluate new forest management techniques that would embrace an ethic of enhanced stewardship. The project was carried out in the Vernon District of the Kamloops Forest Region with a goal of balancing the old values of forest economics with new values that support the preservation of wilderness, environmental protection, water quality, recreation, and community stability. This case study examines that project.

This volume provides 16 detailed case studies of major companies representing each step in the commercial chain from forest management to retailing forest products. The studies, from around the world, demonstrate what the shift to sustainability means for businesses involved in forest products - some of the world's most important renewable resources. Introductory chapters characterize the process and the gains for all companies, organizations and business schools engaged with sustainable forestry.

Destruction of the world's tropical forests remains a dramatic problem. In the midst of this destruction, sustainable forest management (SFM) has grown from a theoretical concept to a set of practical, procedural guidelines for harvesting natural forests in a way that minimizes damage to forest and ecosystem, while maximizing sustainable economic value. Still, the commercial viability of SFM has not been clearly demonstrated. Precious Woods, LTD., a Swiss-founded corporation active in Costa RIca and Brazil, is one of the few companies in the world attempting to conduct SFM. This case study examines Precious Woods' efforts to establish a sustainable tropical forestry business in Brazil, and identifies both the company's challenges and potential. This report is a project of The Sustainable Forestry Working Group Individuals from the following institutions participated in the preparation of this publication: Environmental Advantage, Inc. Forest Stewardship Council The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Management Institute for Environment and Business Mater Engineering, Ltd. Oregon State University, Colleges of Business and Forestry Pennsylvania State University, School of Forest Resources University of California at Berkeley, College of Natural Resources University of Michigan, Corporate Environmental Management Program Weyerhaeuser Company The World Bank, Environment Department World Resources Institute

A range of powerful forces -- increasing demand for wood, uncertain and decreasing supply, increasing environmental pressures, and growing markets for environmentally certified wood -- are changing the way the forest products industry conducts business. Forward-thinking firms have recognized the significance of these forces and are developing a new business model, one that will not only sustain revenues, but can ensure the long-term health of the forests upon which the industry depends.The Business of Sustainable Forestry integrates and analyzes a series of 21 case studies of industry leaders carried out by the Sustainable Forestry Working Group. The motivations of the pioneering firms studied are as varied as their characteristics, yet each has made significant progress. The authors of this book argue that the operations that have been most succeessful are those that have integrated sustainable forestry principles and practices into their overall corporate strategy. The book: describes the forces that are pushing the industry toward sustainability presents an overview of the new techniques and technologies that are making sustainable forestry more feasible than ever presents in clear, engaging prose company profiles that demonstrate both the promise of and the obstacles to sustainable forest management gives a clear-eyed look at practices such as certification and their capacity to transform the forest products market provides conclusions drawn from the cases by Stuart Hart of the University of North Carolina and Matt Arnold of the Management Institute for Environment and Business offers a succinct set of lessons learned The Business of Sustainable Forestry is the first book to present a composite snapshot of the business of sustainable forestry and the lessons learned by early adopters in form and language accessible to the general business reader. Forest and natural resource managers, forest products industry managers, and students and academics in schools of business and forestry will find the book a unique and valuable guide to an industry in transition.

Most forest products analysts exploring the market for sustainable forest products have been searching for the green consumer. They have assumed that the well-documented consumer concerns about the impact of the industry on the forest would make consumer demand the dominant force propelling the industry toward sustainability.While consumers' concerns about the industry's environmental impact remain important, many other, more powerful, forces are at work that will lead to an overall market shift towards sustainable forest management (SFM). These factors are converging to shift environmental attention on the industry from process controls and recycling to the management of forest resources. Today, a greater emphasis on the entire life cycle of forest products is pushing environmental concerns through the value chain from retail stores and pulp mills back down to the forest floor.This paper assesses the major drivers and pressures on the forest products industry that are combining to bring about more SFM; thereby, significantly increasing the volume of sustainably produced forest products entering the markets.The paper first looks at push drivers - those drivers putting pressure on the industry, pushing it towards greater sustainability. Second, external pull drivers are examined. These are incentives that encourage the forest products industry to change its practices and operate more sustainably. The third section describes how these push and pull drivers are converging to gradually create a market for sustainably produced forest products. Finally, geographic and industry structure factors are examined to identify how and where the transition to sustainable forestry is most likelyto emerge.

We changed our attitudes, we listened, we learned, we cooperated, and we took the initiative. - Granqvist, supervising forester, STOR.Over the past ten years, Swedish forest products giant STORA has transformed its forest management to implement and verify a commitment to sustainable forestry. The company has hired a staff ecologist, implemented ecological landscape planning, brought local environmentalists into its management planning, retrained its workforce, and adopted new forest conservation measures. Most recently, STORA became Europe's first major timber company to have a large block of its forests certified by a third party as sustainably managed.Headquartered in Falun, Sweden, STORA is one of the largest forest products companies in the world with 1996 sales of $5.9 billion. The company ranks fifth worldwide in paper and board production, producing 1.9% of the world's production compared to 3.2% for industry leader, International Paper Co. STORA sells primarily paper products, but also runs four sawmills and is involved in power production, banking, and associated financial operations. The company owns a total of 2.3 million hectares of forest, primarily in Sweden, but it has holdings in Portugal and Canada, as well.In 1996 STORA became one of the first large commercial forestry operations in the world to attain third-party certification. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the oldest and most credible certification system with environmentalists, certified STORA's holding in the Ludvika district. STORA's size and its importance in the global forest products industry makes its actions a milestone in the development of sustainable forestry. As STORA's evolution towardsustainable forestry indicates, certification has already become a strategic consideration for some forward-looking companies.

In this thoughtful collection of essays edited by Debra J. Salazar and Donald K. Alper, forest policy in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia is examined in a binational context. While US and Canadian forest policy and forest management approaches differ, the two countries face similar challenges and conflicts. Contributors discuss the evolution of forest exploitation, the response of timber companies to U.S. federal environmental regulations, sovereignty for First Nations communities, and the reshaping of the political economy of forests by global forces on both sides of the border. Groups usually ignored in the forest policy debate -- such as First Nations peoples, workers in the emerging non-forest economy, and citizen activists -- are also given voice in this fascinating compilation.