The posting on the…

The posting on the Environmental Bill of Rights web portal describes two different policy approaches for Ontario to use its Crown forests to manage carbon.

These two approaches are:

1) forest carbon management - a government-led approach that could use forest carbon policies to influence the amount of carbon stored in forests and in wood products.

2) forest carbon offset projects - a market-driven approach that would enable forest carbon offset projects on managed Crown forests.

As a regulator of professional forestry the OPFA does not have a preference for either policy approach. However, the first approach may be difficult to implement as it will require considerable long term funding by government at a time of high demand for other important public needs.

Both policy methods may be feasible with small government outlays of funds by following an approach that is used by the Ontario Government in the delivery of engineering services and health care in Ontario. With these business sectors the government develops policy and may undertake research directly or indirectly while the delivery of services is left to qualified licenced professionals working for clients or employers.

This approach, i.e. delivery via provincially licenced professionals, has the added benefit in that it creates a virtuous system that benefits the long term public good. Problems that may arise are resolved through the best evidence available and the provincially licenced professional can be held to account by any member of the public, the professional association or the Minister responsible for the administration of the relevant profession. Using provincially licenced professionals such as professional foresters also moves politicians to an arm’s length from controversial or catastrophic events. This will allow the provincial government to provide oversight via its civil service and ensure the best results for Ontario are achieved. Thirdly, such an approach will enable each business and community in Ontario to develop their own solutions within Ontario’s chosen policy and targets.

The Professional Foresters Act 2000 defines the scope of practice of professional foresters. Professional foresters are already required to prepare and supervise site-level silvicultural and landscape-level forest plans. The legally defined scope covers all aspects that need to be considered in the development and implementation of complex, i.e. multi-scalar long-term forest carbon plans. It would be of benefit to the Ontario Government to state that qualified members of the OPFA are required to develop and implement forest carbon plans to meet the province’s forest carbon objectives. Such a requirement would be an important signal to the investment community and people of Ontario that objective methods and defensible options will be used to develop forest carbon strategies.

[Original Comment ID: 202868]