By Bob Austman
Despite funding challenges, the Manitoba Model Forest (MBMF) has expanded its role to include management of the Canadian Model Forest Network and the Model Forest in Indonesia.
This year represents one of significant change for MBMF. The organization was formed in 1992 as a mechanism to promote the involvement of local communities in the decisions that affect the use and management of natural resources in our region, to develop new and innovative tools for sustainable forest management, to assist in the development of other natural resource-based economic opportunities and to inform and engage educators, students and the general public around issues of sustainable development.
For more than 20 years, the MBMF has benefitted from core funding provided by Natural Resources Canada: first through the Canadian Model Forest Program, and more recently through the Forest Communities Program. With this funding, hundreds of projects with communities, industries, other non-governmental organizations and universities were completed in Manitoba since 1992, totalling more than $20 million.
Federal core funding came to an end in March 2014, and this new fiscal year will be the first without such base funding. Canada is still recovering from an economic downturn, and project-based funding has also become increasingly rare, and more limited.
With this in mind, the MBMF Board of Directors will undertake a strategic planning process in order to identify a sustainable path forward for our organization.
Our 2014-2015 Annual Work Plan covers the period from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015, and covers four key theme areas.
- Partnerships in Natural Resource Management
The MBMF Committee for Cooperative Moose Management and the Eastern Manitoba Woodland Caribou Advisory Committee will continue to meet, providing important multi-stakeholder avenues for the development of recommendations and strategies for managing two important wildlife species in eastern Manitoba.
- Education for Sustainable Development
The MBMF will continue its strong legacy of engaging educators, students and the general public in education initiatives designed to inform about all aspects of natural resource management. This will consist of school presentations and field trips, teacher professional development workshops, the MBMF Summer Institute for Teachers, the new MBMF KEY to the Forest environmental monitoring course for youth, and a new collaboration with Lord Selkirk School Division to develop their Albert Beach Interpretive Trail.
- Core Operations
In addition to regular Board meetings, the Board of Directors will undertake a strategic planning process that will determine the transition required to make the MBMF a sustainable entity. This theme area also provides for the on-going administrative costs associated with running the organization (office, human resources, etc.).
- National and International Partnerships
On April 1, 2014, the MBMF assumed responsibilities for the administration of the Canadian Model Forest Network (CMFN). As such, the corporate office of the CMFN has moved to the MBMF office in Pine Falls, and the MBMF will provide administrative support (finances, strategic planning and project development, partnership building, communications) for the CMFN.
The MBMF General Manager, Brian Kotak, is now also the General Manager of the CMFN. Within the CMFN, several new national and international projects are being pursued, including a project that will create a new Model Forest in Indonesia. The MBMF is leading this project
