Achieving acceptance of sustainable forestry by communities and the global marketplace, requires new ways to make forest management both apparent to and trusted by people. Many have questioned the practice of hiding forestry behind the buffer strip or in the back-country, yet this remains the dominant paradigm for locating and designing forest harvesting. As recreation and second homes add pressure on the back-country, an increasing proportion of mature timber is concentrated in highly sensitive front-country areas, and ENGO websites broadcast pictures of logging worldwide, a different approach is called for. Are there not ways to reveal and celebrate careful forest design and good stewardship?

A new theory of Visible Stewardship suggests that an acceptable working forest needs to provide more evidence of human activity, not less. It argues that forestry will be perceived as good forestry only if it demonstrates an obvious and sustained commitment of people to the places under their stewardship. Without clear signs of people’s attachment to and care for the forest, the best management intentions may send the wrong message. Forestry activities should express both respect for nature and respect for place: designs that fit the landscape, express ecological health, are sensitive to local concerns, and communicate continuity of management (eg. through frequent silvicultural treatments by community members). However, improved design and obviously sound practices are not enough: acceptable forestry builds in an open social process for management decision-making, with visible signs of community interaction and of socio-economic benefits.

The session draws on recent literature in the IUFRO Research Series Volume 6, and on current research on conflict avoidance in contentious forest regions of British Columbia. It demonstrates promising techniques of Visible Stewardship, including communicating future forest scenarios through advanced visualization, and innovative landscape design/partial harvesting techniques.