The Boreal Forest: A Sustainable Bioeconomy

  Canada is home to one-tenth of the world's forests and more than 30 % of all boreal forests. Additionally, Canada is the world's largest exporter of forest products. Although the Canadian forest industry faces major economic and environmental challenges, there is opportunity as demand shifts towards products that can be produced sustainably, without displacing land that could otherwise be used to grow food for fuel. Lakehead University's Biorefining Research Initiative (BRI) in collaboration with Faculty Researchers aims to transform Canada's immense natural forest resource wealth into a new forest-based 'bioeconomy', defined by Natural Resources Canada as: “the use of renewable biological resources and bioprocesses for more sustainable and eco-efficient manufacturing of goods”; these are often referred to as 'bio-products' and 'bio-materials'.

With forest bioproducts currently contributing an estimated $1 billion to Canada's economy (Natural Resources Canada Factsheet 2008), Lakehead University is envisioned as a national and international centre of excellence for research and innovation in the sustainable development of value-added, forest-based bioproducts that will act as a catalyst for economic diversification benefiting northern regional communities in Ontario, and Canada as a whole. Canada's Science and Technology Strategy states that “sustainable productivity and competitiveness must be improved through innovation that more effectively uses science and technology to develop practical applications”.

A research team has been assembled at Lakehead University that integrates world-class researchers in Canada's first ever research chairs dedicated to Biorefining (Dr. RFH Dekker, Dr. W Qin and Dr. W. Floriano), with four out of eight Canada Research Chairs (CRCs: Drs. L. Catalan, A. Chen, G. Pyle, E. Prepas), and one out of two Lakehead University Research Chairs (Dr. B. Liao) in forest-related research priority areas. In partnership with Forest Products Innovations (Canada), Lakehead University’s Faculty of Forestry and the Forest Environment will establish an Industrial Research Chair in Forest Products Market Intelligence. Together, this team of research expertise along with Canada's leading forest products companies, and provincial and federal government partners, will define the needs of both large industry and smaller business enterprises as many team members have a track record of partnering with industry. The presence of internationally recognized researchers within a region richly endowed with natural resources that includes the Boreal Forests makes Lakehead University uniquely positioned to lead research and innovation in forest-based products and technologies that will impact industries and the community.