In forest management, actual applications of an integrated approach in forest management are not very frequent. Integrated forest management generally involves taking into account the totality of interactions of various sub-systems-social, economic, and ecological-within the biosphere, together with integration of goals set for such management. Several obstacles are identified in this paper to a successful integration of various sub-systems. Philosophical differences with respect to the rights of various members of these systems, fragmented and uni-disciplinary training, lack of scientific knowledge regarding the impact of one sub-system on the other, as well as lack of information on users and their goals, are some of the major obstacles. Lack of consensus when preferences of various users of the forest are heterogeneous further adds to the difficulties. Stakeholder participation in the management along with the use of multiple criteria decision-making tools offers a route to integrated forest management.

Model forest, Adaptatation, Canada