Role of Managed Forestlands and Models for Sustainable Forest Management: Perspectives from North America

realistically and justifiably allocated to protected areas? And perhaps even more importantly, on the remaining actively managed landscape, what forest management practices should be employed and how can these be encouraged? Answers to these questions must be adaptive to evolving models of sustainable ecosystem management as well as geopolitical context and local community involvement. In this paper I discuss several evolving models intended to guide sustainable forestry on managed forestlands, with the assumption that these would be used in conjunction with protected areas. Examples and case studies from the United States and Canada are presented. These showcase several innovative ideas in sustainable forest management, with the explicit recognition that there is no universal “one size fits all” solution. However, recent developments in North America may provide a perspective relevant to efforts elsewhere in the world.