John Innes

Mapuche people are claiming rights to their ancestral territorial spaces, including the ownership of land and control over the territory, in order to exercise the right to set their development priorities and to have the natural resources to ensure their existence as a people. However, settlers and commercial companies have legal access to the same lands and, therefore, can develop the land by the means they consider best for their own interests. The state has supported unfair practices by providing subsidies and militarizing claimed spaces (e.g., using heavy weaponry, armoured vehicles, and tear gas). On top of this, Mapuche communities, like other Indigenous communities around the globe, are experiencing the impacts of climate change (e.g., drought and forest fires combined with the impacts of introduced forest plantations).The main purpose of this study is to understand the process that Mapuche communities experience in their quest for land restitution in a constantly changing context. To accomplish this aim, I approached the issue through a specific research question: How do Mapuche people navigate the challenges and opportunities provided by a rapidly changing context to secure land restitution and their cultural survival?An inductive qualitative case study approach was adopted, informed by Indigenous methodology and constructive grounded theory. Data-collection methods were tailored to respect Indigenous protocols, values, and beliefs important to the Mapuche communities.I show that the different understandings of the land respond to an ontological conflict that affects the efforts of Mapuche communities to rebuild their ancestral territories. While navigating CONADI’s land restitution process, communities witness how settlers, seeing the land as a commodity, take advantage of the process and inflate land prices. When prices are too high, communities are asked to find alternative estates.The lack of access to capital and knowledge to maintain the control of access gained through the CONADI makes tenure security insufficient to drive climate change mitigation. If the law does not bundle land restitution and financial support for the communities to establish living conditions and conserve or restore their native forests, it will be hard for communities to avoid subscribing to environmentally detrimental agreements.

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The use of Protected areas (PAs) is an effective approach for conservation worldwide. The support of local communities has significant influence on the success of conservation areas. This research provides further insights into the livelihoods of people living in PAs. It examines the perspectives of local villagers on the establishment of PAs and the development of associated tourism industries. I used a case study approach to conduct an in-depth examination of two PAs in China. I conducted 100 semi-structured interviews with local elites, villagers, and government officials to identify changes experienced by the villagers, equity issues, and governance problems. Broadly, I offer insights into the complex social-ecological changes being experienced by local communities in two PAs in China. Specifically, I demonstrate that at both locations, livelihoods have been limited to some extent by the establishment of the PAs. Alternative livelihood options were critical for local people, and needed to have strong connections with policies aimed at improving livelihoods, not only focusing on income, but also accounting for improvements in social, human, physical and natural aspects of their livelihoods. I also explore the perceptions of equity change over time and across development stages so that I can assess how the changes depend on local economic activities and policy implementation. I demonstrate that changes in distribution equity are more readily recognized than changes in participation equity or recognition equity. In practice, the central government policy to promote equity in China is severely compromised when it is implemented by local governments. I show that the addition of key events into the analysis provides important information on equity changes and, based on this, the equity analysis framework is modified. Finally, I demonstrate that the livelihoods of local peoples are closely related to local government structure and institutional arrangements. In the case of the Jiuzhaigou Biosphere Reserve (JBR), the government structure and institutional arrangements did not encourage livelihood improvements. A clear distribution of management authority and responsibility among different government departments is needed to solve the conflicts that have arisen.

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In India, the Indian Forest Acts of 1865 and 1878 transferred the ownership of all forest land and its resources to the colonial government. These were replaced by the Indian Forest Act of 1927, currently in force. Successive legislations continued to alienate resources from communities. This inadvertently criminalized the traditional forest-based livelihoods and cultural practices of local tribal communities. Tribal communities continue to follow their local traditions, but lack the voice to protect their culture against non-local interventions. This denial of participation to tribal communities in managing forest resources has led to their alienation from the very resource they depend upon. The Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme was promulgated in 1991 to increase local forest dwellers’ participation in forest management. The Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA) attempted to address historical injustice meted to forest dependent communities. These policy level initiatives, de jure, could be viewed as an effort to partially restore the primacy of forests in the livelihoods of forest dwelling communities. However, JFM and the FRA continue to be subservient to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and no substantial change is visible. Using a case-study approach and purposive sampling, four villages in Gujarat State were selected for the study. Data was collected in 1995-97 and 2011 on people’s livelihoods, cultural practices, forest access and restrictions, awareness and participation in governmental, and community forestry activities. These data were compared to ascertain changes and continuity. Results showed that despite JFM, the basic governance of forest management remains unchanged. Forest related cultural practices and livelihoods of local tribal communities continue to be marginalized and criminalized.The thesis argues that the restorative efforts of JFM and FRA fail to adequately uphold human rights of tribal communities. It further offers an analysis of the impact of such provisions on the well-being of the tribal community.Based on a concept of criminalization and empirical findings, the aspect of illegitimate illegality (legitimate activities labelled as illegal) is teased out from corruption. Using elements of Aboriginal Forestry, the Classification of Decriminalization framework is developed to recognize and to respect tribal people’s cultural identities. 

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Joint Forest Management (JFM) - i.e. forests jointly managed by the Forest Department and local community - has been operative across all States of India for more than two decades now. Despite its successes in expanding to over one third of the forest area, challenges in managing the forest jointly exist between these two unequal partners. Apart from issues of governance, the lack of communication between them has been reason for many of the on-going conflicts and issues. The present study explores the communication mechanisms in current practices in JFM, their effectiveness and challenges. The perception of community and the Forest Department about communication challenges, emerging technology, and possible solutions are also explored. A model is developed to help practitioners and planners to assess communication situation and to design appropriate mechanisms. To study the communication challenges and their relation to power and technology, I surveyed three village communities, and interviewed a range of Forest Department officers from Gujarat. I also surveyed senior Indian Forest Service officers from 19 States to understand their perception of the communication challenges. This data helped me to develop a model to understand communication in a culturally embedded governance situation. Results of the study indicate the lack of adequate mechanisms to understand the governance-communication linkages with consequential silhouetted approaches that fail to consider the impacts and linkages. The proposed model suggests that communication in governance should be planned taking into account ‘skillholders’ from ‘civil experts’ and ‘conventional experts’ across a variety of stages and dimensions. While community depends on the Forest Department for information and legitimacy for its various activities, the Department’s approach has been haphazard and ambiguous leaving much improvement to be desired. Senior forest officers acknowledge the situation and suggest a number of solutions for improving communication, which ranges from improved relationships to delivery mechanism. The research suggests that there is too much focus on certain areas for communication, such as policy implementation, without adequate emphasis on the process of policy making, leading to lack of clarity on a number of processes and procedures.

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The subtropical forest biome accounts for approximately a quarter of the area of China and is particularly important for local economies, and for maintaining biodiversity and the carbon balance of forest ecosystems. Despite their importance, there is still considerable uncertainty about the characterization and spatial distribution of tree species, as well as the carbon budgets of these forests, many of which have been altered by anthropogenic activities. Remote sensing has the potential to provide quantitative, spatially explicit information for mapping and monitoring forest ecosystems. It is also a cost-effective tool to provide temporally uniform and “wall-to-wall” observations over time. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing laser technology that provides an advantage over most other remote sensing technologies in its ability to provide detailed three-dimensional information of forest canopy structure, which is particularly useful for studying forest biophysical and structural properties. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate novel approaches for using and examining the effectiveness of LiDAR technologies, in order to classify tree species and estimate forest biomass and dynamics, across a study site within the subtropical region of southeast China. Specifically, airborne LiDAR was evaluated for its ability to: (i) discriminate tree species using small-footprint full-waveform LiDAR metrics; (ii) estimate forest biomass components by discrete-return and full-waveform LiDAR metrics; (iii) spatially extrapolate the estimation of forest biomass components, and (iv) predict and map biomass dynamics using multi-temporal LiDAR data. The results of this dissertation confirm that LiDAR-based approaches can make significant contributions to analyze the structure, composition and distribution of tree species across the study site, and provide effective methodologies and techniques for developing high resolution, spatially explicit estimations of forest biomass (and its dynamics). These methods have important applications to sustainable forest management, forest carbon cycling studies and carbon accounting projects.

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This study investigated the chain of custody certification adoption, the state of innovation, and change management in the BC value-added wood products sector. To achieve this goal, a survey was conducted in the fall of 2013 to determine attitudes, motivations, and barriers of a selection of value-added wood products manufacturers with regard to their current and potential participation in CoC certification. In addition, the innovativeness of the firms, as well as the change management attributes using the ADKAR (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement) model, were assessed. The study revealed that 41% of the respondents were certified, with remanufacturers having the highest adoption level. Another 13% of the companies were interested in becoming certified in the next 5 years and the remaining 46% were not certified and were not interested in certification citing a range of barriers including lack of customer demand, high costs, and a lack of price premiums. Certified and interested companies seemed to be ambivalent about the motivations regarding certification. For certified companies, improved corporate image and participation in LEED building projects were the two biggest motivations for adopting certification. However, for interested companies, the ability to command price premiums was the top motivation. To assess value-added wood products industry practices with respect to innovativeness, an indirect self-evaluation scale was used to assess the propensity to create and (or) adopt new products, processes and business systems. Respondents rated themselves more innovative with respect to business systems innovation as compared to product and process innovations. The two-cluster solution in cluster analysis found that companies in the cluster with the greater proportion of certified companies had more positive views about innovativeness although no statistically significant relationship was found.The ADKAR model for change management revealed that the ability to implement the change was a significant barrier for value-added wood products manufacturers in adoption of CoC certification. Suggestions made for policymaking and change management include strategies for the creation of awareness, desire and knowledge for CoC certification. Others include providing resources to enhance the ability of companies to adopt certification, and reinforcing the change through recognitions and rewards systems.

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The focus of this research is environmental governance in Africa, explored through the lens of trans-border conservation initiatives. I used the embedded case study approach to dissect the political, socio-economic and ecosystem management aspects of decision making in the establishment and management of protected areas across national boundaries, focusing on two transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) in southern Africa, the Greater Limpopo and the Greater Mapungubwe transfrontier conservation areas. This is a qualitative study using mixed methods to collect data, including 93 semi-structured interviews with current and potential decision makers from every possible level, 16 questionnaires, ten mental model workshops, several meetings with local municipalities and other decision-making platforms, and an in-depth scrutiny of relevant policies and treaty documents. Interviewees provided inputs into a value system framework based on a compilation of attributes from each of the ecosystem, socio-economic and governance literature, to produce an average score for each of the two case study areas. The results indicated highly disjunctive approaches among countries forming part of the TFCAs, leading to many undesirable feedback loops. The decision-making processes of each country component of the two TFCAs were then analyzed separately, using a “governance” capability maturity model to determine the effectiveness of current management practices. A “collaboration” maturity model was used to identify gaps in the information sharing, decision making and patterns of interaction among the different stakeholders of each of the two TFCAs, indicating institutional and decision-making flaws in the current system. Some recommendations are provided to improve these in order to overcome current failures in the three dimensions of a TFCA.

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The south-western part of the Yukon Territory of Canada has experienced an unprecedented spruce bark beetle outbreak and frequent forest fires beyond the historical trends. Accumulating evidence also suggests that the southwest Yukon has experienced the impacts of recent climate change: warmer winters and warmer and drier summers over the past 15 years have contributed to the severe spruce bark beetle infestation, affecting white spruce on approximately 340,000 hectares of the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in southwest Yukon. The mortality caused by the bark beetle outbreak has also increased the risk of wildfire severity and frequency in the region. I studied the impacts of climate variability, disturbances and environmental factors on stand structure, forest regeneration and vegetation diversity within the CATT. The research was conducted in close collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Resources of the Yukon Government and the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations Government. Data were collected in the summer of 2008 from the forested landscape of the Champagne and Aishihik Traditional Territory. I found that stand structure varied significantly by edaphic and topographical factors with higher forest productivity at lower elevation and on lower slope positions where there was a higher soil moisture regime. Overall stand productivity and vegetation diversity were higher on warmer aspects and in mixed stands. Although regeneration of all tree species was higher in burned areas, broadleaved species prevailed in these areas, indicating that persistent disturbances associated with the predicted increase in temperatures in the region may promote broadleaved species. A higher diversity was found in moderately disturbed open areas with higher mean temperature and precipitation. Salvage harvested areas had the highest diversity and highest composition of broealeaved trees. The undisturbed mixed stands had the ecosystem characteristics that would closely meet the ecological goals of the Strategic Forest Management Plan (2004) in the region. The vegetation distribution were closely linked with topographical, climatic and disturbance regime in the study area, which could be a basis for vegetation classification, which is still lacking in the study area.

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Given the large uncertainties associated with climate change, regular and systematic measurement of various aspects of the natural environment is the primary means for understanding what changes are actually taking place. This research is focused on the development of a strategy for monitoring the biophysical attributes of British Columbia’s forest and rangelands in order to supply the information needed to bring climate change adaptation considerations into decision-making in the Province. A framework of indicators for monitoring the impacts of climate change was developed through iterative, bottom-up processes involving both expert and end-user participation. The former involved interviews with key experts and an indicator development workshop attended by 58 delegates from across the Province. The latter involved a web-based survey designed to better identify the indicator framework’s target audience as well as their key information needs and management questions with regard to climate change adaptation. The resultant framework identifies seventeen indicators of varying importance for monitoring in light of climate change. I developed approaches to measuring some of the indicators and analyzed the capacity of current monitoring and inventory programs to support their evaluation. Where possible, the data available to support the indicators was tested in south eastern British Columbia. This was designed to assess the capacity of the existing data sources to meet decision makers’ climate change adaptation needs. The results of these tests showed that, while there are some relatively good data sources that can be used to support climate change adaptation in forests and rangelands, there are some indicators for which there is a paucity of data. Through this research I have been successful in developing a solid foundation for increasing the information available to incorporate climate change adaptation considerations into British Columbia’s forest and range management. My research also offers an example to other sectors, countries and regions who are seeking to use their data to track climate change and better understand its impacts.

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Forest aesthetic indicators are an important aspect of the social component of sustainable forest management (SFM) standards. However, SFM standards have few aesthetic indicators, especially at an international level. A possible reason for this is that public awareness of forest aesthetic values has often been regarded as unscientific or even contradictory to the ecological knowledge of forestry experts and that aesthetic values vary according to the cultural backgrounds of the individuals involved in any assessment. In response to the current lack of aesthetic indicators in SFM standards, several questions have been raised: (1) Does the public think forest aesthetic values are important and to what degree in terms of SFM, (2) Is there any consensus on the aesthetic values among the public and between the public and forestry experts, (3) Are there any differences in perspectives on the absence of aesthetic considerations in SFM standards between the experts participating in the creation and revision of SFM C&I and experts in the fields of forest aesthetics, and (4) How can aesthetic values be effectively and efficiently assessed? In order to address these questions, three surveys were conducted involving the public and experts in four countries. The survey revealed no significant differences in priorities for forest aesthetic values amongst selected groups of public respondents in Korea, China, Japan and Canada. However, significant differences existed between forestry experts and the public. Forest aesthetic values were rated as relatively important by the general public, but both types of experts generally rated the importance of aesthetics higher than did the public. Three major reasons for the lack of aesthetic indicators were provided by the SFM and aesthetic experts: a lack of aesthetic training amongst those designing criteria and indicators; a bias against aesthetics, which are often considered to be highly subjective; and the general omission of people with knowledge of aesthetics during the development of SFM standards. Ten possible aesthetic indicators that could be used in future SFM schemes were developed in this study. The indicators presented here and the direct involvement of aesthetic experts would improve the ability of current SFM frameworks to balance effectively social, environmental and economic values.

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Forest management planning is increasingly difficult due to the growing numbers of values and interests associated with forests, with climatic and socio-economic change adding further complexity. Forest planning hence can be described as a wicked problem. It cannot be tamed by linear deterministic approaches, but rather requires a more holistic approach. This study illustrated the development and testing of a planning and decision-support framework, the Integrated Dual Filter (IDF), for forest management. The IDF consists of two Filters, an Environmental and a Social Filter, and three States: Environmental representing the no-management landscape that can be used in planning as a ‗natural baseline‘ for the Desired State (an engineered landscape); the Management State represents a managed landscape to explore tactical aspects of planning and assess the feasibility of the Desired State. The IDF was tested using empirical data from the Champagne and Aishihik Traditional Territory (CATT), southwest Yukon. The CATT has recently experienced a spruce bark beetle outbreak affecting over 85% of its forests. The governance response was the development of the Strategic Forest Management Plan (SFMP). The SFMP was the starting point for the IDF-Social Filter to extract important values during working group meetings in the Yukon, deploying a ratings table to develop, judge and rank a hierarchy of criteria and sub-features for the Analytic Hierarchy Process. This resulted in five alternative forest management strategies for the long-term: manage forests for the timber industry; for multiple values and use; for fire risk reduction; for wildlife; and for the carbon industry. The IDF-Environmental Filter revealed that white spruce will still dominate the landscape after 200 years; that fire will remain an important disturbance to maintain a heterogeneous landscape; and that climate change will likely have no direct effect on tree species in the overall landscape but will be important at the site level. The conceptual simplicity of the IDF makes it a valuable decision-making support system to identify system properties, constraints and concerns (by using the Filters) in order to simulate and project the planning landscape (using the States) into the future. It allows an extension of the existing planning horizon from 20 years for the CATT SFMP to >100 years; this will better inform management, especially under consideration of climate change.

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This study investigated the challenges facing the adoption of sustainable forest management (SFM) and forest certification in China. To achieve this goal, the perceptions of four influential direct and indirect stakeholders were examined to reveal the awareness, understanding, interest, motivation, and barriers to adopting SFM and forest certification. The four stakeholders consisted of Chinese small-scale forest farmers who have received small forest land from the collectives through the new forest tenure reforms, Chinese market officials working for forestry property markets, Chinese wood products manufacturers, and Canadian wood products retailers. In addition, the new forest tenure reforms and their supporting mechanisms, including forestry property markets, were assessed in terms of their impacts on the promotion of SFM and certification in China. The study revealed general low levels of awareness and understanding about SFM and forest certification amongst various stakeholders in China, with forest farmers having particularly low awareness. Several challenges to the adoption of SFM and forest certification in the period before the new forest tenure reforms were identified by the small-scale forest farmers, including insecure and unclear forest tenure, inconsistent forest policies, inadequate finances, under-developed infrastructure and transport system, and lack of efficient knowledge and technical transfer. Market officials were found to have limited knowledge of SFM and forest certification but their role in educating forest farmers and promoting SFM and certification is particularly important, as government support is considered to be critical to the early and rapid uptake of SFM and certification in China. Chinese manufacturers expressed immense interest in forest certification despite the identified barriers. From their perspectives, the biggest barrier was the lack of market demand for certified wood products. Canadian retailers were chosen as a substitute of Chinese retailers to gain insights into how a more advanced market for certified wood products might evolve, and how the demand might evolve in China. The new forest tenure reforms and forestry property markets are likely to overcome many of the challenges and enable forest farmers to adopt SFM and certification. That said, the widespread adoption of SFM and certification amongst various stakeholders has a long way to go.

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Community forestry can deliver economic, socio-cultural and ecological benefits to local communities. Case studies from around the world have shown this, yet results have also been mixed, as many initiatives have failed to deliver their promises. Criticisms have arisen that community forestry remains dominated by decision-making by offsite experts, replication of models deemed successful in other contexts, and the spread of forestry practices that have been developed for the large-scale forest industry.This research provides further insights into community forestry from the perspective of the local forest user. A case study approach was used for an in-depth examination of six community forestry initiatives in Brazil and Mexico, assessing the current status of community forestry and suggesting a path forward based on local needs and wants. Qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews with community members, and elements of grounded theory methodology, were used to: assess the amount of forest management authority communities currently have; create a framework outlining the challenges facing communities in managing their forests; and, identify community-defined goals and processes for community forestry initiatives.Results showed that, despite the rhetoric of decentralization, communities continue to work within tightly regulated frameworks of forest management with limited decision-making power for forest product commercialization. Within this limited power structure, communities face interrelated challenges in both the development and operationalization phases of forestry initiatives, requiring a holistic strategy of intervention to encourage the maintenance of a profitable and self-sufficient enterprise. In identifying community-defined goals, this research found that other livelihood strategies, particularly agricultural practices, need to be considered when designing forestry interventions that are overly focused on timber production. This exercise also underlined the need to promote site-specific models of intervention that take into account the variety of contexts and community interests.A better understanding of local perspectives can aid in the design of community forestry interventions brought by conservation and development agencies, by adding an important and understudied perspective to the problems that face community forestry. Without the community member playing an essential and empowered role, the success of community forestry will be limited.

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This research examined the potential cumulative impacts of air pollution in northeast British Columbia (BC). It was part of a larger project to develop tools for assessing the cumulative impacts of development in BC’s Treaty 8 traditional territory. Although this study was framed from a First Nations perspective, it has relevance to all residents of the region. The focus is on Criteria Air Contaminants (CAC); whose reporting in Canada is required based on contributions to acid rain, ozone and poor regional air quality. Air pollution in northeast BC is dominated by the upstream oil and gas (UOG) sector. An analysis of official emissions data and reporting policies showed that inventories severely underestimate UOG emission sources. Industry-based emission estimates were combined with a conventional government-based emissions inventory to give a more comprehensive dataset for the region. When CAC sources were considered inclusively and cumulatively across the region’s landscape, emissions of the CAC sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds approximately doubled, reaching intensities comparable to urban areas. Due to the magnitude of SO₂ and NOx emissions, and their known contribution to the acidification of ecosystems in parts of Canada, the Critical Loads of Acidity (CL(A)) were estimated for freshwater lakes in the region. A scarcity of detailed lake chemistry data pre-empted the development of empirical methods for estimating CL(A). Alkalinity and calcium measurements were available for a significant number of lakes and were consequently used as indicators of acidification sensitivity using relationships between these parameters and existing CL(A) estimation procedures. The resulting CL(A) were used alongside Ambient Air Quality Objectives (AAQO) and critical limits for various ecosystem elements, as thresholds for measuring potential air pollution effects. The AERMOD model, traditionally used for simulating the dispersion of UOG emissions from individual sources in BC, was used here to predict ambient concentrations and surface deposition of both SO₂ and NOx from numerous emission sources in an area of both cultural significance and high source density. Results predicted potential threshold exceedances that may have implications for ecosystems, human health and First Nations Treaty rights.

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Following a shallow landslide, hydrogeomorphic processes in the initiation zone respond to the discontinuities of soil depth, topographic expression, and hydrologic and forest conditions. The shallow landslides occurring at the study sites are episodic erosion processes punctuating periods marked by the deposition of hillslope material. Recovery of soil depth and topographic expression occurs through small-scale processes that infill the failure area. Rates of small-scale redistribution of hillslope material decline with time and are attributable to both vegetation re-establishment and diminished surface topographic variability. Understory forest vegetation in failure areas resemble the vegetation on adjacent undisturbed slopes within approximately 100 years of failure; re-establishment of the forest canopy may require several centuries longer. Stochastic elements of the surrounding forests strongly affect soil accumulation through influences on material transport and deposition. The central tendency of soil accumulation approximates a sigmoid curve with the majority of accumulation occurring within 100 years of failure. Soil depth on adjacent hillslopes positively influences soil accumulation in failure areas, but repeated shallow landslides can deplete hillslope materials from the contributing area. The sediment balance of weathering, storage, and evacuation strongly influences future cycles of failure and recharge. The frequency of preferential flow pathways in shallow landslide initiation zones was found to be spatially variable with fewer preferential flow pathways in the infilled soils of failure areas; thus landslide occurrence and subsequent infilling may negatively influence future slope stability. As a result of this study, recommendations for future research are made regarding the effects of forests on the regime of small-scale material transport processes occurring after shallow landslides, on the spatial and temporal development of preferential flow pathways in shallow landslide initiation zones, and on the long-term stability of sites of shallow landslides.

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The combined influence on the environment of all projects occurring in a single area is evaluated through cumulative impact assessments (CIA), which consider the consequences of multiple projects, each possibly insignificant on its own, yet important when evaluated collectively. Traditionally, the future human activities are included in CIA using an analytical platform, commonly based on complex models that supply precise predictions but with asymptotically null accuracy. To compensate for the lack of accuracy of the current CIA I have proposed a shift in the paradigm governing the CIA. The paradigm shift involves a change in the focus of CIA investigations from the detailed analysis of one unlikely future to the identification of the patterns describing the future changes in the environment. To illustrate the approach, a set of 144 possible and equally likely futures were developed that aimed to identify the potential impacts of forest harvesting and petroleum drilling on the habitat suitability of moose and American marten. The evolution of two measures of habitat suitability (average HSI and surface of the stands with HSI>0.5) was investigated using univariate and multivariate repeated measures. Both analytical techniques (i.e., univariate or multivariate) revealed that the human activities could induce at least one cycle (with a period larger than 100 years), in the moose and American marten habitat dynamics. The planning period was separated into three or four distinct periods (depending on the investigation methodology) following a sinusoidal pattern (i.e., increase – constant – decrease in the habitat suitability measures). The attributes that could induce significant changes in the environment are the choice of harvesting age and the valued ecosystem component. The choice of the valued ecosystem component is critical to the analysis and could change the conclusions of the CIA.

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No abstract available.