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Traditionally, forest management has focused on forestry-related practices whereas other industries have been managed separately. Forest management requires the integration of all natural resource development activities, along with other anthropogenic and natural forest disturbances (e.g., climate change, pollution, wildfire, pest disturbance) to understand how human activities can change forested ecosystems. The term cumulative effects has been used to describe these attempts to integrate all disturbances to develop an understanding of past, current, and future impacts on environmental, social, and economic components of the system. In this review, we focus on the science required to understand the past, current, and future impacts of the cumulative effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on forested ecosystems or their components. We have primarily focused on the terrestrial system with an emphasis on northern forests in Canada. Our paper is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all cumulative effects science but a synthesis of the challenges and approaches currently being used. Central repositories were identified as an approach to deal with issues of availability of remotely sensed data on anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Data integration projects, open data, and well-designed large-scale data collection efforts are needed to provide sufficient data on environmental responses to cumulative effects. As well, large-scale integrated, modularized ecosystem models are needed to bring stressor and environmental response data together to explore responses to, and interactions between, multiple stressors to project these effects into the future and to identify future data collection needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses survey information to examine several common assertions about the institutional prerequisites for successful profitability when a First Nation enters an economic enterprise either independently or in joint effort with an outside firm. In the winter of 2004–2005, we interviewed managers on both the First Nations and private sides of joint ventures and other business alliances in Canada, to determine what affected their recent profitability experience. We gathered information on the ages, sizes, and activities of the firms. We also gathered information about the firms’ management structures and relationship with the First Nation, and the characteristics of the government of the First Nation. With a sample size of 40 firms that responded, we found that several institutional characteristics affected profit positively: strong separation of management from band governance, participation in management planning, and the use of staggered terms in band council elections. We found that the likelihood of profitability decreased if the band had been in third party management as well as if there was formal participation of elders or hereditary chiefs in decision making. We offer interpretations of these results. Cet article utilise les données d’un sondage réalisé au cours de l’hiver 2004–2005 afin d’examiner plusieurs assertions courantes au sujet des préalables institutionnels requis pour atteindre la profitabilité des entreprises initiées par des Premières nations agissant seules ou en partenariat avec des acteurs privés. Nous avons interviewé des gestionnaires impliqués dans de tels partenariats d’affaires au Canada et provenant tant des Premières nations que du secteur privé. Nous voulions déterminer ce qui affectait la profitabilité qu’ils avaient connue récemment. Nous avons rassemblé de l’information sur l’âge, la taille et les activités des entreprises. Nous avons aussi recueilli des données sur la structure de gestion des entreprises, les relations avec les Premières nations et les caractéristiques de la gouvernance en vigueur dans les communautés d’accueil. Un échantillon, regroupant les quarante entreprises qui ont répondu, nous permet d’observer que plusieurs caractéristiques institutionnelles, comme la séparation claire entre la gestion des projets et la gouvernance des communautés, la participation dans la planification managériale et le recours à des mandats échelonnés lors des élections au conseil de bande, affectent positivement les profits. Nous avons aussi remarqué que les chances de profitabilité diminuent si les conseils de bandes jouent un rôle en tant que de tierce partie dans la gestion des entreprises et si les aînés ou les chefs héréditaires participent formellement au processus décisionnel. Nous tentons d’interpréter ces résultats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]