Sustainable forest management (SFM) has become the guiding paradigm for forestry around the world, but all-too-often it is not clearly defined. While I accept that SFM is more than sustained yield timber management, I worry about the consequences for nature of broad interpretations of “sustainability” that allow exchanges of natural for other sorts of capital (i.e., built, financial, social, and human). Elsevier’s JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE MINING is a case-in-point. I take a nature lover’s approach to reclaiming the concept of sustainability, and explore its application to a range of forested land-uses in the tropics.

The Natural Resources & Environmental Studies Institute (NRESi) at UNBC hosts a weekly lecture series at the Prince George campus. Anyone from the university or wider community with interest in the topic area is welcome to attend. Presentations are also made available to remote participants through Livestream (Channel 1). Go to http://www.unbc.ca/nres-institute/colloquium-webcasts to view the presentation remotely.

Past NRESi colloquium presentations and special lectures can be viewed on our video archive, available here.