Precious Values: Integrating Diverse Forest Values into Forest Management Policy and Action (Ontario)

Abstract Public participation has wide support among various stakeholder groups as a means of identifying diverse forest values. However, attempts to incorporate these values-especial ly non-commercial values-into decision-making have not been successful. The Non-Commercial Forest Values Colloquium was sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources to redress this omission. Looking at a range of non-commercial values, the colloquium developed a set of Core Principles, viz.: respect the totality of interests embodied in a forest; adopt a holistic ecosystem perspective; guide forest policy through a set of Core Principles; give primacy to the preservation of ecosystem integrity; avoid irrecoverable harm in policy decisions; and develop accounting/evaluation systems that balance values in forest policy decision-making.