What is a variable retention system?

Variable retention systems are defined as the retention of at least 15% of the forest.

Iisaak's approach focuses on protecting of all forest values, maintaining ecosystem function, and producing a wide range of forest services and products. The trees retained are dispersed across the harvest area, concentrated in patches or distributed in a combination of both types of retention.

How much of the forest does Iisaak retain?

Iisaak's approach results in a range of retention levels between 15% and 80%. Iisaak emphasizes the values to be retained rather than the trees to be removed.

Variable retention harvesting is more expensive than conventional harvesting. How will the additional cost be accounted for?

The short answer is that the most efficient way to offset costs is to receive a premium for our product. Society as a whole demands that greater care be taken in our forests. We at Iisaak subscribe to that philosophy. We believe that our customers are prepared to pay more for conservation-based forestry.

In the long term we will try to create a new economic model through the development of revenue streams from other values such as eco-tourism, recreation, botanicals, carbon and biodiversity.

This strategy will help to:

• Launch the question of "what non-timber values are worth" to the international marketplace.
• Cast BC in a leadership position in the establishment of new approaches to reconciling global and local conservation interests.
• Generate international interest and support for new approaches.

Iisaak represents a market based solution to longstanding controversy over logging and conservation issues in Clayoquot Sound. Iisaak is a successful business designed to harness market forces and contribute to a resolution of land use issues in an unprecedented way.