Revisiting forestry's crystal ball

Abstract

This paper revisits 3 broad predictions about forestry's future presented by the author in 1993: the growing importance of products that come from forests, forests increasingly valued for more than the sum of their products and uses, and better appreciation of forests as complex ecological systems controlled by forces larger than humans. These predictions have played out in more dramatic ways than initially envisioned, driven in part by 3 emergent forces: the energy crisis, the ascension of new economic superpowers, and climate change. Examples of these trends and relationships are examined from Canadian and United States contexts.