Community Forestry In Canada

This book brings together the work of over twenty-five researchers to provide a comparative and empirically rich portrait of community forestry policy and practice in Canada. Tackling all forestry regions from Newfoundland to British Columbia, it unearths the history of community forestry across the nation, demonstrating strong regional differences tied to patterns of policy-making and cultural traditions. Case studies reveal innovative practices in governance and ecological management but also uncover challenges related to government support and market access. This book also considers the future of the sector, including the role of institutional reform, multiscale networks, and adaptive management strategies.

Canada is experiencing an unparalleled crisis involving forests and communities across the country. While municipalities, policy makers, and industry leaders acknowledge common challenges such as an overdependence on US markets, rising energy costs, and lack of diversification, no common set of solutions has been developed and implemented. Ongoing and at times contentious public debate has revealed an appetite and need for a fundamental rethinking of the relationships that link our communities, governments, industrial partners, and forests towards a more sustainable future. The creation of community forests is one path that promises to build resilience in forest communities and ecosystems. This model provides local control over common forest lands in order to activate resource development opportunities, benefits, and social responsibilities. Implementing community forestry in practice has proven to be a complex task, however: there are no road maps or well-developed and widely-tested models for community forestry in Canada. But in settings where community forests have taken hold, there is a rich and growing body of experience to draw on. The contributors to Growing Community Forests include leading researchers, practitioners, Indigenous representatives, government representatives, local advocates, and students who are actively engaged in sharing experiences, resources, and tools of significance to forest resource communities, policy makers, and industry.

An incisive examination of community forestry in a pan-national context, highlighting both the possibilities and challenges associated with its implementation.

Community forestry is an expanding model of forest management around the world. Over a quarter of forests in developing countries are now owned by or assigned to communities and there is a growing community forestry movement in developed countries such as Canada and the USA. There is, however, no economic theory of community forestry and no systematic treatment of the potential economic advantages of promoting Community forestry in developed countries. As a result much of the policy debate over forest management and forest tenure rests on confused and often erroneous views held by policy makers and encouraged by the dominant forestry industry. The Economic Theory of Community Forestry aims to address this gap and provides the tools for understanding community forestry movement as an alternative form of ownership that can mobilize community resources and encourage innovation. It uses a wide range of economic principles to show how community forestry can be economically superior to conventional forestry; provides examples from Canadian practice; and discusses the regulatory regime that policy makers must put in place to benefit from community forestry. This book will be of interest to policy makers, activists, community forestry managers and members, foresters and forestry students.

The Mission Municipal Forest, in the Fraser Valley of southern British Columbia, is the first and oldest continually operating community forest in Canada. Its resilience and success helped paved the way for the community forestry model in BC. Operating under BC Tree Farm Licence #26, these 10,000 hectares of cedar, hemlock, and fir forest straddle the lower reaches of Stave Lake, a scenic area of historical and economic significance to First Nations, the province, industry, and the wider Mission community. This book captures the history of the municipal forest, known as The Tree Farm, and demonstrates why locally managed forests can innovate and generate a diversity of benefits for surrounding communities. The Tree Farm describes the trials and opportunities in the Mission Municipal Forest, including fire management, fluctuating log prices, surging numbers of visitors, and the need to take steps towards reconciliation. Fully illustrated with contemporary and archival photos and maps, The Tree Farm is a perfect way to commemorate this innovative forestry model and chart a path forward.

Three quarters of Canada’s forests are under provincial control, so provincial forest policies are crucial to long-term sustainability. By offering an up-to-date comparative scrutiny of forest policies, this book provides forest managers, policy-makers, scholars, and students with the information and concepts to critically examine Canada’s complex forest tenure systems. Looking at tenure, stumpage fees, and other forest practices, the authors assess how well different provincial schemes achieve the goals of sustainable forest management. They identify essential policy attributes that could be used to guide tenure reform, consider barriers that could prevent meaningful change, and offer much-needed practical guidance on overcoming these obstacles.