Patrick Lavoie

I’ve heard it time and time again: how can cutting trees be good for the environment? In my 15+ years working at FPInnovations, my role addressing this discourse has been to provide nuance and guidance to help our members and clients make informed decisions. No one likes seeing a forest being cut down, but forests do grow back, and the temporary sting may be a small cost to pay to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help limit climate change impacts. …But what is the forest sector’s role? …the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has acknowledged that there are two major ways forestry can contribute toward climate change mitigation: Maintaining or increasing how much carbon is stored in forests, and Providing a sustained fibre supply. …to what level the forest sector can help curb climate change? FPInnovations’ knowledge of the full forest industry value chain made it the perfect candidate to lead a project to answer these questions.