Fostering sustainability in the northern forest region: the role of renew able energy

摘要

This paper investigates the role that renewable energy could play to promote economic and ecological sustainability in the Northern Forest region. The link between renewable energy development and land conservation has not been well established in the literature. This paper begins to establish this link. Several opportunities are identified in which renewable energy development could effectively address some of the key issues threatening the long-run sustainability of the Northern Forest region. The paper concludes that renewable energy development could enhance the value of forested land, thereby reducing the pressure on landowners to harvest timber unsustainably or to sell-off large tracts of land for development purposes. In addition, renewable energy development could provide an opportunity to strengthen and diversify the rural, resource-based economies of the region.