MFC-NL Objectives

Strategic Approach

1.0 Capacity Building

1.1 Local Community Network/Special Agreements

• Establish Local Community Networks (LCNs) in five strategic regions of Newfoundland and Labrador in cooperation with CFS and FSB. 
• Arrange and facilitate special agreements to enhance the relationship between the Innu Nation Forestry Office and the Government of NL;
• Arrange and facilitate special agreements to enhance the relationship between CBPPL, ACCC, and integrated or private sawmills and designated LCN;
• Create the capacity to arrange non-forestry sector agreements with LCNs.

1.2 Professional Development in the Forest Sector

• Increase the accessibility and utilization of program(s) for the skill enhancement and certification of the professional forest sector;
• Create awareness of the knowledge, competency and skills of forest sector with the general public

2.0 Developing Approaches and Sharing Knowledge

2.1 Synergy across Sectors

• Establish a preliminary knowledge base on parallel sector programs impacting communities and their sustainable development;
• Create a cross-sector advisory network and assist with the LCN with planning and development product;
• Determine a method of linking social, environmental, and economic initiatives that are integrated and accessible to the LCN participants.

2.2 Baseline and Knowledge Gap Assessments

• Establish an inventory of biophysical and socio-economic knowledge in the area of sustainable economic development and natural resource management;
• Develop and implement a strategy to fill the LCNs gaps in resource knowledge and answer critical questions as part of a Knowledge Generation Plan (KGP);
• Forge strong linkages with organizations focused on sustainable economies in the implementation of the KGP;
• Develop an online information sharing system that is accessible to participants in the MFC-NL and the LCNs:
• Water quality and quantity portal for data acquisition and management;
• Tourism values provincial geodatabase.

2.3 Systems and Tools to Assist in Informed Decision

• Establish a provincial Community-based municipal watershed management planning system and resources and a progressive implementation plan;
• Implement existing or establish innovative community monitoring programs through co-monitoring agreements with provincial and national agencies;
• Create the capacity of the LCNs to establish recreational and cultural strategies for the utilization of their forests;
• Explore and initiate innovative approaches for the adoption of community forest management systems.

3.0 New or Enhanced Forest Based Opportunities

• Facilitate LCNs in creating a strategy to strengthen and enhance community economic revitalization efforts utilizing the forest resources;
• Document all findings in a Strategic Directions document that will be incorporated into LCN Business;
• Initiate proof of concept and risk assessment analysis on future business initiatives;

3.2 Implementation of LCN Business Plans

• Develop a strategy for non-timber forest products:
• Tourism related activities, medicinal forest products, mushrooms, birch syrup, wreath-making, recreation, craft production, etc.
• Create a model for community-based forestry from strategy design to project implementation:
• Value added products (hardwood flooring/ furniture), bio-fuels (chips and pellets), lumber, pulp and paper (roundwood and chips); fuel wood optimization; local subsistence;
• Support the development and implementation of Business Plans for the LCNs based on the best and most warranted community-based approaches to economic revitalization.

4.0 International Outreach

4.1 International Network Development

• Facilitate and establish a framework to forge agreements on joint ventures with International Model Forests;
• Assess the utility of accessing funds from international development agencies and, if warranted, encourage contribution agreements on exchange and development projects.

4.2 Educational Initiatives Abroad and at Home

• Identify opportunities to establish agreements between the SWGC and CNA initiatives and international partner organizations;
• Assist NRCan/CFS in the establishment of an International Student Centre on Forest Research in the Boreal.

5.0 Bringing Forth the Model Forest Legacy

5.1 Refining Systems and Tools

• Enhance forest management product and service development that meets the needs of an adapting forest sector.

5.2 The Image of Forestry

• Develop and implement an Educational Strategy that shares SFM principles and techniques related to the forest sector with education professionals at the primary, elementary, secondary school and University levels;
• Assist the forest sector in a strategy to address the decrease in enrolment at forestry based educational institutions;
• Develop and implement a communications strategy that will illustrate to the general public of Newfoundland and Labrador the level of professionalism in the field of forestry.

5.3 Achieving Financial Autonomy

• Establish and incorporate a charitable organization for school and public education in the area of Sustainable Forest Management;
• Access national and international foundations that support SFM initiatives in education;
• Acquire government and corporate financial agreements based on our ability to delivery on their needs.