Exploring Potential Synergy between Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management and Technological Progress in Regionally Segmented Canadian Logging Industries

Explaining the natural limits on the carrying capacity of forest ecosystems to natural and human-induced disturbances underpinned the goal of this study. Hypothesized mutually reinforcing beneficial effects of sustainable forest ecosystem management (SFEM) practices and total factor productivity growth (TFPG) in regionally segmented Canadian logging industries were examined. Two complementary methodologies were applied: (1) A normative bioeconomic analysis of SFEM, and (2) an analysis of TFPG, which is a commonly accepted indicator of technological progress. Sluggish, but upward trends in TFPG appeared to support the hypothesized outcomes that logging operations were technically efficient, that firms in each regional industry had comparative cost advantages in the marketplace, and that the unavoidable adverse effects of logging operations on integrity of forest ecosystems were tolerable, given the economic fact that logging sustains the forest sector's significant role in the overall performance of the national economy. However, low TFPG implied a need for strategic policy that would boost investments in research and development to promote technological progress, so as to ensure environmental quality, sustainable timber supply, and competitiveness in the Canadian forest sector. Society derives multiple benefits from TFPG that include: (i) A synergetic combination of factor accumulation and TFPG, which is one of the engines of economic growth; (ii) a minimization of the natural capital stock, timber, and depletion; (iii) the mitigation of the wasteful use of scarce-productive resources; (iv) the mitigation of adverse impacts of inflation on economic growth; (v) the maximization of profits due to economic savings made in production processes; (vi) the reallocation of 'freed' productive resources to the production of other goods and services, leading to technical and economic efficiency; and (vii) the improvements in the competitive position of the Canadian forest sector. Accordingly, this book concluded with a list of policy recommendations.