National Forest Pest Strategy

Provincial, territorial, municipal and federal governments work together through the National Forest Pest Strategy to reduce the risk of unacceptable damage to Canada’s forests from insects and diseases, both native and alien.

A strategy to integrate Canada’s pest management efforts

The vast majority of commercial forest in Canada is on Crown land and therefore the management responsibility of provincial and territorial governments. Municipalities are responsible for the forests in their jurisdictions. The federal government is responsible for managing forests on federal lands, such as national parks and First Nations reserves.

The National Forest Pest Strategy provides a plan for integrating all of the work being done across Canada by this range of parties. The aim is to help all the jurisdictions involved work together with the common goal of maintaining healthy forests and a sustainable forest sector.

The strategy relies on interdepartmental and inter-jurisdictional cooperation. This enables forest managers across the country to make the most efficient use of up-to-date knowledge, expertise and technology. Included in the framework is a national approach to risk analysis and integrated forest pest management.

Through the National Forest Pest Strategy, threats posed by both native and alien pests to Canadian forest (including urban forests) are addressed. The strategy focuses on achieving forest pest prevention and early detection, using science-based risk analysis to support decision-making.

Under the National Forest Pest Strategy, the federal government’s primary roles in dealing with forest insects and diseases include:

• conducting and supporting research on pest ecology
• providing expert knowledge for risk assessment
• providing advice to forest managers and developing management tools, methods and decision-support tools
• implementing international and domestic regulatory controls regarding invasive alien species.

Under the National Forest Pest Strategy, resources and knowledge at all jurisdictional levels are brought together to identify high-risk situations in Canada’s forests and then design the best approaches to manage those.