Principle 5: Benefits From the Forest Principle 6: Environmental Impact Principle 7: Management Plan Principle 8: Monitoring and Assessment Principle 9: Maintenance of High Conservation Value Forests Principle 10: Plantations Principle 1: Compliance with Laws and FSC Principles Principle 2: Tenure and Use Rights and Reponsibilities Principle 3: Indigenous People's Rights Principle 4: Community Relations and Workers' Rights


PRINCIPLE # 5: BENEFITS FROM THE FOREST
Forest management operations shall encourage the efficient use of the forest's multiple products and services to ensure economic viability and a wide range of environmental and social benefits. They are mostly discussed in the latest environmental essay topics https://essaystore.net/environmental-essays-topics/

 

5.1 Forest management should strive toward economic viability, while taking into account the full environmental, social, and operational costs of production, and ensuring the investments necessary to maintain the ecological productivity of the forest.

 

5.1.a. The forest owner or manager is financially able to support long-term forest management, e.g., planning, inventory, resource protection, post-harvest management activities.

 

5.1.b. Investment and reinvestment in forest management is sufficient to fulfill management objectives and maintain and/or restore forest health and productivity.

 

5.1.c. Responses to short-term financial factors (such as fluctuations in the market, requirements for cash flow, need for sawmill equipment and log supplies) allow fulfillment of management prescriptions in the management plan.

 

5.1.d. The forest owner or manager reinvests in the local economy and the community through both active civic engagement and ongoing capital investment.

For example:

  • Facilities and equipment are regularly maintained and updated.
  • Out-of-area owners maintain a local office.
  • The owner or manager supports local business development by working with organizations such as chambers of commerce.

 

5.2 Forest management and marketing operations should encourage the optimal use and local processing of the forest's diversity of products.

 

5.2.a. Local value-added processing and manufacturing facilities are used when economically justifiable.

5.2.b. New markets are explored and developed when and where feasible for common but less-used species (regions insert their own examples), grades of lumber, or an expanded diversity of wood products (regions insert their own examples).

For example:

    • Oriented strand board, laminates, pellets, and wood fuel are produced from lower quality boles.
    • Where site qualities allow production of veneer quality trees, the stand is managed for that purpose.

 

5.2.c. Whenever ecologically and economically possible, the technical and financial specifications of forest products sales are scaled to allow successful competition by small businesses.

 

5.2.d. When non-timber products are used or extracted the management and use of those products (regions insert their own examples) are incorporated into the management plan.

 

5.3 Forest management should minimize waste associated with harvesting and on-site processing operations and avoid damage to other forest resources.

Applicability: Waste is determined by balancing economic and ecological values. For example, sufficient woody debris, twigs, and foliage should be left on site to provide adequate nutrient cycling; beyond that threshold forest products should be used as economically, efficiently, and completely as possible.

 

5.3.a. Felling, skidding/yarding, bucking, sorting, and handling are carried out in a way that maximizes log scale and grade.

 

5.3.b. Harvest is implemented in a way that protects the integrity of the residual stand. Provisions concerning acceptable levels of residual damage are included in operational contracts.

For example, bumper trees are utilized and equipment is selected and used in a way that minimizes unintentional damage to crop trees.

 

5.3.c. Byproducts of operations are used as an input into a productive process where economically feasible.

For example, chips and sawdust are used for mulch, filler, or fuel.

 

5.4 Forest management should strive to strengthen and diversify the local economy, avoiding dependence on a single forest product.

 

5.4.a. Management diversifies forest uses, while maintaining forest composition, structures, and functions.

For example, compatible uses may include recreation, specialty products, livestock grazing, hunting, and fishing.

 

5.4.b. Forest owners or managers make reliable supplies of timber and non-timber products available to local processors, when such supplies are consistent with the goals and objectives of forest management.

 

5.5. Forest management operations shall recognize, maintain, and, where appropriate, enhance the value of forest services and resources such as watersheds and fisheries.

 

5.5.a. Aquatic and riparian concerns, including water quality, take precedence over other management considerations within designated riparian management zones.

 

5.6 The rate of harvest of forest products shall not exceed levels which can be permanently sustained.

 

5.6.a. The sustainability of harvest levels is based on clearly documented growth and regeneration data, site index models, and soils classification. The required level of documentation is determined by the scale and intensity of the operation.

For example:

  • Over a period of 10 years or longer, harvest records show that growth rates meet or exceed harvest rates.
  • Stocking rates and volumes conform to projections of the management plan.
  • Ecological evidence is presented to document the appropriateness of the desired age-class distribution and predicted yields in volume.

 
Principle 1:Compliance with Laws and FSC Principles
Principle 2: Tenure and Use Rights and Responsibilities
Principle 3: Indigenous People's Rights | Principle 4: Community Relations and Workers Rights
Principle 5: Benefits from the Forest | Principle 6: Environmental Impact | Principle 7: Management Plan
Principle 8: Monitoring and Assessment | Principle 9: Maintenance of High Conservation Value Forests
Principle 10: Plantations