Exploring causal linkages between sustainable forest ecosystem management and technological progress in Canadian logging industries

Abstract

Logging poses socioeconomic, ecological, and environmental dilemmas. On the one hand, it plays a significant role in sustaining the forest sector’s contributions to the national economy. On the other hand, however, logging operations are major causes of ecological and environmental damages. It was hypothesized that if timely investments in various silvicultural operations were made to restore ecological integrity disturbed by logging operation, if the guiding principles of sustainable forest ecosystem management were strictly upheld, and if public and private investments in research and development were made, with a view to realize technological progress in the forest sector, then logging operations would be technically and economically efficient, firms in each regional industry would have comparative cost advantages in the marketplace, and the adverse effects of logging operations on ecological integrity would be socially, economically, and environmentally tolerable, all reflected through total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Two complementary methodologies were applied to test this hypothesis. First, the guiding principles of sustainable forest ecosystem management were synthesized to establish the conditions and the principles that logging firms must uphold to be stewards of ecological integrity. Second, TFP growth was measured and analyzed, using a nonparametric model. Sluggish but upward trends in TFP growth appeared to validate the hypothesis. Implications of the study for policy making and the benefits that society derives from TFP growth are highlighted.