| Natural resources policies are now routinely built on the concept of sustainable development. Ecology and ecosystem management theory are central to the task of interpreting and applying it. This dissertation examined the ecological content of two federal forest initiatives, the National Forest Strategy and the Model Forest Program of 1992. At issue were the integration of natural science and material interest into public policy, the role of Canadian structural factors, the direction for Canadian forestry envisioned in the policies and their implied message about the ideal nature-human relationship.; The study employed a qualitative method that combined evidence from documents, interviews and visits to Prince Albert and Fundy model forests. Analysis of the integration of natural science with material interest was framed by policy community theory and the political economy of Canada's natural resources, that of the policies' ecological content by the forest ecology literature. A set of nature profiles was also prepared for the study, ranging from pre-Enlightenment times to today, based on the history of Western science, to identify the philosophy of nature found in the policies and the proposals submitted to the Model Forest Program.; This work concluded that the Canadian forestry situation is the outcome of a complex interplay resulting from a staples-based economy, federalism, close government-industry relations, and the association of elite experts with the dominant industrial paradigm. Their combined action caused otherwise innovative policies to maintain the traditional timber focus and to endorse a type of ecosystem management permissive of industrialized forestry. The policies' `postmodernist' nature philosophy did not challenge the dominant paradigm but was shown to continue in the older, atomistic tradition.; Model forests are managed by partnerships of landholders and other interested parties. At both locations, the study confirmed the program's potential to resolve conflicts but found that those without material interests were easily marginalized; further, its voluntary nature kept intact the legal arrangement between the provinces and the industries. In view of this and the fact that the new ecological knowledge has served to uphold the theme of exploitation, any policy change in the forestry community is expected to be limited. |
