Status of Land Cover and Biodiversity in the Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc.
Forest Management Agreement Area

Located in northeastern Alberta, the Al-Pac FMA area covers approximately 10% of Alberta’s land area and includes a mosaic of deciduous, mixedwood, and coniferous forests along with an abundance of aquatic ecosystems including lakes, rivers, and several types of wetland (e.g., bogs and fens). This range of habitats supports a rich array of biodiversity requiring responsible forest management to sustain ecological value along with the social and economic benefits in the FMA area.

Al-Pac uses an ecosystem-based management (EBM) approach to manage its activities in the FMA area. Following a natural disturbance model as part of EBM is viewed as a risk-managed approach to maintaining biodiversity. The underlying assumption of this approach is that the biodiversity in boreal forests is adapted to frequent, widespread disturbances—particularly fire as the main agent of change. Therefore, if forest harvesting resembles the patterns, structure, and vegetation communities resulting after fire disturbances, biodiversity is more likely to be maintained.

While there are some well-documented differences between wildfire and timber harvesting immediately after disturbance, it is hypothesized that differences in biodiversity will diminish with time. Implementing harvest planning and practices that are inspired by natural disturbance should hasten the convergence of many components of biodiversity between wildfire and timber harvesting. Al-Pac commissioned the ABMI (2010-2012 field work) to test the convergence hypothesis and found supportive evidence for many aspects of biodiversity when comparing 15-year old harvest areas to comparably-aged wildfires^[1]. 

Al-Pac has been a long-time supporter of the ABMI and believes strongly in the mandate of the ABMI to conduct credible, third-party monitoring with results that are available to all. This report represents the third report, and second 5-year update, on monitoring biodiversity on the Al-Pac FMA area using the ABMI’s core monitoring program.

Al-Pac has maintained Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) forest management certification on its Forest Management Agreement (FMA) area since 2005 (FSC C022642). This certified area is currently the largest contiguous FSC certified forest in the world^[2]. FSC is an international, not-for-profit, membership-based organization. The mission of the FSC is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests^[2,3]. The new National Forest Stewardship Standard of Canada was published by FSC in June 2019 and must be implemented by certified members by January 1, 2021^[4,5]. Throughout this report, applicable FSC Indicators that can be addressed by ABMI data are highlighted to support Al-Pac's conformance to the new standard.