The challenge facing many developing countries is to devise sustainable forest management in face of crushing debt payments, growing population, an increasing technological gap, and dwindling employment opportunities. Poor countries often resort to unsustainable practices to ensure some income, such as inadequately controlled logging involving large international companies harvesting timber, unplanned development, and wildfires. These result in an annual loss of nearly 16 million hectares of forest, increasing poverty in the longer term and the developing global ecological crisis.
Programmes promoting the sustainable use of forest lands require to be built upon integrated development factors: (a) sustainable use and management of forestry and other natural resources; (b) restoration and conservation of soil fertility, through the promotion of agroforestry and sylvi-agropastoral farming systems; (c) training programs on protection and conservation of the environment; (d) promotion of participatory approaches with beneficiaries using their own know-how; and (e) training for improvement of the living conditions of certain groups (e.g. women and youth) through income-generating activities.
Maintaining the unique and rich array of diverse plant and animal communities in Canada's forests requires maintaining the health and diversity of the whole forest landscape, as well as designating specific areas to be protected because of their unique ecological value.