Sustainability is non-negotiable.

Frontier isn’t just a forestry business; it’s a platform for what we believe in. Forests are a critical natural resource under real threat, because unsustainable silviculture models have been operating without proper accountability or correction since the 1950s. Change is coming.

Frontier refocusses attention now on sustainability as a first principle; taking the needs of nature seriously and reconciling hard realities with the fundamental needs of humans too. The status quo is about as fragile as it gets. The future requires foresters to adapt to this, intelligently. A lack of historic accountability (accumulation of mistakes/risks) now forces us to take extraordinary care to correct these man-made imbalances, without delay.

Frontier and other forestry innovators are now working against the clock to identify how we can responsibly rebalance the economics of forestry towards a sustainable future by working with nature; to make up for the many ecological trade-offs and many mistakes of the past 100 years, and also successfully navigate the next 100 with limited visibility on how dramatically climate, population densities, and economics will change.

Frontier was established in 2023 to advance the principles of sustainable forestry by working with nature, by working with extraordinary people, and by embracing circular economic principles to achieve common goals. Our investments are designed with care, with future generations in mind. We are not shy of using advanced technologies; advanced technology and human capital are, more than anything, our secret sauce. We specialise in R&D.

Forests aren’t just essential for the short-term timber needs of humans; they represent apex ecosystems for wildlife too. We all depend on this.

The alternative to responsible innovation now is catastrophe. As a first principle, we must return forestry and our beloved landscapes towards an ecological and economic balance. Change is an economic imperative; not a choice; the problems and the ecological solutions are inseparable. We must now discover what sustainable forestry economics really looks like. This is because our ancestors relied largely on what nature provided, until we ran out of ancient forest. The post-war plantation forestry model sought to aggressively plant and harvest in blocks, treating forestry like a 50-year video game. This model ignored many significant costs, is nowhere near as productive as it seems, and has proven to be absolutely unsustainable. It is our great burden, and our great privilege, to try our best now to correct this man-made crisis, by working with nature to correct the balance and restore economic and ecological stability.

Sustainable economics is downstream of sustainable ecology. Well-known economic, human, and ecological crises are now converging because past leaders determined first principles were negotiable by brute force. Nature disagreed. Forestry cannot escape reconciliation of its past mistakes nor escape its man-made vulnerabilities. The good news is, our problems are all solvable. We must reconcile these problems now, with great care, and re-centre the economics of forestry around biodiversity; not despite it. Long-term ecological sustainability is primary; we must correct this before our climate becomes unmanageable; before biodiversity and our economy both flatline because they both depend on the stability of climate upstream.

Just as agriculture has evolved many times over many generations, forestry will evolve now too, and benefit from advanced know-how. Forestry can and must be done differently. Forestry can and must serve as a platform for the practical needs of local people, our national economy, and our wonderful wildlife too; it cannot reasonably serve one or two, at the expense of the other. Forestry can serve local communities much better, and be designed to serve future generations economically much better too, if we put our minds to it. It is a design challenge, as ever, with trade-offs.

Monoculture is the antithesis of security. For nature, diversity is security.

It is a verifiable fact that both the economic AND ecological models of 20th-century forestry are broken. There is conclusively, therefore, no substitute for change. Many good people recognise this as a principle. The numbers speak for themselves. Forestry is in crisis because it has been mismanaged; taken towards a convenient-looking extremity to serve short-term goals.

There will be legitimate debate about best practice and the various ‘how to’ methods. We welcome this. Sustainable solutions reveal themselves through enterprise and experimentation; taking positive action and taking care. Inaction and incorrection of wrongs being a cause of meta crisis, it is unwise to do nothing and wrong to continue without making changes. There is no substitute for innovation because incorrection and inaction (counter-innovation) have consumed the last 4 decades, and gotten us into trouble.

Many profound lessons have been learned, of course. Diversifying forestry now serves many common interests. There are more lessons to come.

Sustainability requires a return to diversity. It is not too late. First principles are first principles. Forestry can only transform effectively if we learn. Nature is inviting us to learn how to correct, and we must listen carefully. At Frontier Forestry, we are developing a research-based approach that seeks to master the art and the science of silviculture. So there is genuine hope for a better way forward that delivers a sustainable and more equitable future.