WHEREAS BC communities rely on local forests to support their economic, social and environmental well-being, but there is widespread and growing public concern about the current and future health of BC forests and the adequacy of the future timber supply; AND WHEREAS the current regulatory environment and mix of tenure arrangements does not allow for adequate community participation in decisions that affect local forests, especially in community watersheds: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM call on the provincial government to undertake a comprehensive review of the forest tenure system, aimed at developing a blueprint for reform that will: - guarantee long-term environmental sustainability for our forests; - allow for more community control in decisions about forest management; and - ensure more of the benefits from developing forest resources stay in local communities.
Ministry of Forests, Lands Natural Resource Operations Government completed an extensive review of the BC Forest tenure system in March 2009. Specifically, the Working Round Table on Forestry was formed in March 2008. Its 19-member panel brought a diverse range of perspectives and experience to the task of providing key recommendations on how to ensure a strong and sustainable forest industry in BC. The panel met with 19 communities and considered over 250 submissions from the public including forest companies, environmental groups, first nations, and communities. After one year of meetings and deliberations, they produced a consensus report articulating a vision and 29 key recommendations to achieve a vibrant, sustainable, globally competitive forest industry that provides enormous benefits for current and future generations and for strong communities. Since then, government has worked continuously to implement these recommendations and has reported out its progress to the public in three separate status update reports dated Sept 2009, January 2010, and January 2011. See link for more details: www.for.gov.bc.camofforestryroundtable. Specifically, recommendation 23 of the Working Round Table report recommends the expansion of the Community Forest Agreement CFA program. To this end, the ministry is continuing its efforts in conjunction with the BC Community Forest Association and communities to expand the CFA program. To date, 30 CFAs have been issued with an Annual Allowable Cut of approximately 925,000 cubic metres per year covering just over 893,000 hectares. An additional 14 probationary community forest agreements have been issued and are currently transitioning to long-term CFAs. A further 12 CFAs are in the invitation stage. The grand total of CFAs invited, issued or in transition is 56, with a combined AAC of close to 1.6 million cubic metres per year. See link for more details: www.for.gov.bc.cahthtimber-tenurescommunityreports.htm. With regard to expanding the size of existing CFAs to make them more economical, ministry staff are working with the BC Community Forest Associations board of directors to determine all the options to achieve this objective. It is envisioned that a suite of options can be applied to individual CFAs based on the local situation such as the availability of volume and land base. It is important to recognize that CFA expansion in many areas of the province will be limited due to declining harvest levels, the limited availability of suitable lands, government tenure commitments and initiatives such as the new First Nation Woodland licence.