Cyclofor is committed in developing its activities in accordance with sustainable development principles. With this in mind, Cyclofor wishes to broaden its frame of reference beyond the environmental pole, to include the social, economical and ethical spectrums that are linked to its corporate responsibilities.

Following the logging operations, the cutblocks are filled with logging residues. Harvesting this forest biomass with the RC03, creates little or no additional impacts to the forest floor since the machine either work at roadside to recover the slash mounds or reuses the same trails that were previously used by the logging operations. In fact, the RC03 even creates an added scarification that is known to be beneficial for the establishment of natural regeneration on the cutblock.

Technically, the Cyclofor approach has demonstrated its feasibility. The development of this concept called upon the ingenuity and the resources of the local communities to create an expertise that is applicable globally. The growth potential for a natural resources dependent community like ours is extremely important and … is exportable!

Working together with the forest industry, the Cyclofor approach respects entirely all best practices put forth by the Quebec MNR to protect natural regeneration and the forest soil. Our objective is now to answer to all interrogations from the public concerning social, ethical and environmental aspects of our approach in order to help us optimise our development.

Out in the field, the Cyclofor approach is to maximise the recovery of all logging residues, but to do this we don't believe we must recover 100% of all the slash that is available. In fact, the science indicates that the forest biodiversity and soil fertility could be potentially avertedly affected. As we are always searching to obtain equilibrium between optimizing biomass recovery for site preparation and an acceptable level of biomass left on the forest floor, research is ongoing to determine acceptable biomass harvesting levels. Presently, a monitoring system follows our operations to measure the harvested levels in each site. NRCan, La Chaire Écoconseil de l'UQ de Chicoutimi and FERLD are monitoring consultants.