L'utilisation des données écologiques dans la pratique forestière au Québec

Abstract

The contribution of ecological land classifications to forestry practice in Quebec, still remains limited. To identify the causes explaining this under use, 32 forest managers from the Quebec administrative region were interviewed. As expected, they integrate ecological knowledge poorly with their decision making, even though they acknowledge the importance of the different ecological factors. Since these factors are not generally part of the decision criteria used by their forest organisations, the managers have little incentive to make the efforts needed to find and acquaint themselves with the existing ecological documentation. Furthermore, the form generally given to these documents only partially meets their needs. Rather than ecological descriptions, these managers would prefer ecological evaluations. To resolve this transfer of knowledge problem, the concept of an ecological information system is proposed. Key words: Ecological data and forestry, ecological information system, data base, information base.