Media Clipping — January 7-20, 2002, The Victoria Standard

Two local case studies used in forestry report

by Jim Morrow

The recently released two volume report, The Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index Forest Accounts, highlights two Victoria County forestry related enterprises.

The Genuine Progress Index or GPI differs from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in that it not only assesses economic well-being, it also assess social well-being. The GDP measure of progress takes no account of the value of natural, human and social capital, including environmental assets, unpaid work and free time.

GPI Atlantic says the GDP does not allow policy makers to distinguish the costs and benefits of different activities and it masks changes in economic distribution. Because GDP statistics make no qualitative distinctions, they do not reveal whether expenditures signify an improvement in well-being or a decline. Such fundamental omissions and limitations, GPI Atlantic believes, render the GDP an inadequate measure of social and economic well-being.

The GPI method on the other hand accounts for the value of our natural resources by treating them as capital assets which are subject to depreciation and requiring re-investment if they are depleted or degraded.

The report states, "Like other forms of capital, forests provide services by performing a wide range of ecological, social and economic functions. They protect watersheds, prevent soil erosion, provide habitat for wildlife, regulate climate, sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and provide timber, jobs and recreation to human society. The GPI therefore defines sustainable resource use as the capacity to enjoy these services and to live off the interest provided by these assets without depleting the capital stocks."

Improvement in the forests capacity to perform their manifold functions effectively and optimally is a measure of genuine progress, while any diminution of the forests capacity is depreciation.

Trees as forest fruit

Unlike the GDP which counts only the timber removed from the forest, the GPI also values what remains in the forest. The standing stocks, the report states, will determine the capacity of the forest to continue providing not only timber but a wide range of other vital services to human society and to other species.

The GPI makes qualitative distinctions between economic activities that enhance well being and those that signify a decline in the quality of life. The GPI counts crime, sickness, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as costs to the economy - not gains, as the GDP does.

Using the GPI format GPI Atlantic identified Finewood Flooring of Middle River and the Meadow Road's Jeremy Frith woodlot as case studies in sustainable forestry practices.

Finewood Flooring, a private company with Peter and Candace Christiano being the principal shareholders with overseas investors, has experienced 20 to 30% growth over the last three years.

The report says Finewood Flooring is a model of value-added forest product manufacturing. The Middle River company adds ten times more value per unit of wood than the StoraEnso pulp mill. In addition 40% of Finewood's products are sold in Nova Scotia, doubling their value in local spin-off employment. Local sales produce far greater spin-off value and more jobs in the provincial economy per unit of biomass harvested than exports of raw product, lumber and pulp and paper. More jobs and higher skilled jobs are created per unit of wood in value-added processing than in less intensive areas such as logging and chip mills.

Jeremy Frith is restoring his woodlot on the Meadow Road after 200 years of high grading, clearcutting and land clearing by prior owners, with pruning, species diversification, sustainable harvesting and extraction practices and planting.

Mr. Frith believes his woodlot to be a better investment in time and effort than his RRSPs as his work will begin paying off in 10 to 20 years.

He hopes to enhance growth rates and standing timber volumes, increase the health and insect/disease resistance of trees, create product diversity to capitalize on timber markets and leave his land in much better condition with more standing timber and value, producing more oxygen, clean water and abundant wildlife than when he bought it.

The report states that Mr. Frith's approach is in line with the GPI capital investment-oriented accounting approach that sees forests as natural capital assets subject to depreciation and requiring reinvestment is the same way as manufactured capital is currently measured. Conventional economic measures count only the present value of extracted resources.

"On a natural level the forest is itself a living organism made up of everything underground, above ground, and even in the air. I view each individual tree as a Fruit which is formed and ripens in its time until ready for picking. If you take the tree as a fruit analogy with the whole forest being the tree that produces the fruit then harvesting by clearcutting is like cutting down your apple tree in order to get at the fruit. This might make picking the fruit a little easier but it sure is a wasteful and inefficient way to produce fruit. Every time you do it you have to plant a new sapling and wait years for it to mature sufficiently to produce another crop of fruit," Mr. Frith said.

Copyright © 2002, The Victoria Standard