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WCEL
> Issues > Forestry
West Coast Environmental Law's forestry work forms part of our broader Resource Tenures and Decision-making Program. We seek to transform the way rights and responsibilities about land use are understood in BC –creating new legal mechanisms for resource tenures and land use decision-making that are more democratic, sustainable and just.
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Jessica Clogg leads West Coast's Resource Tenures and Decision-Making Program. |
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Over the next decade the constitutional imperative of Aboriginal Title and Rights recognition will result in fundamental shifts to the laws and policies governing land, resources and community development in BC.
West Coast Environmental Law has been at the forefront in providing legal and strategic advice to First Nations and First Nations political organisations to inform these shifts, including crafting law reform solutions that honourably address Aboriginal Title and Rights and foster ecological and cultural sustainability.
In 2007 our program lead, Jessica Clogg received an Ashoka Fellowship to further her work with First Nations using indigenous legal traditions as the foundation for powerful strategies to protect the lands and resources of their territories and to catalyze broader shifts in Canadian law.
Law Reform Discussion Papers:
Land Use Planning (September 2007) [PDF 335 Kb]
Tenure Reform (September 2007) [PDF 320 Kb]
West Coast's work in practice:
Visit www.titleandrightsalliance.org and www.statimc.net(SLRA) for examples.
Forest certification harnesses market power to change forest management by promoting products that use wood harvested in an ecologically and socially responsible manner. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification system is the only one currently supported by West Coast Environmental Law, and other environmental non-governmental organizations and Indigenous Peoples Organizations globally.
West Coast is an active member of FSC and was one of the principal technical drafter in the multi-year process of setting FSC certification standards for British Columbia. These standards, which received international accreditation in 2005, assure consumers that FSC certified wood they purchase from BC comes from forests managed to stringent ecological and social standards.
We are currently focused on two strategies to advance FSC implementation in BC: 1) Supply-side strategies focused on partnerships with First Nations to achieve FSC and other forest conservation goals using constitutionally-protected rights; and 2) demand-side strategies that capitalise on Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building and the 2010 Olympics commitment to LEED as drivers for FSC certification.
Visit www.goodwoodwatch.ca for more information on West Coast’s forest certification work.
Forests and Climate Change
The importance to all British Columbians of establishing an effective legal framework for global warming solutions—to our way of life, our economy and our environment —cannot be overstated:
Recommendations from the Western Climate Initiative (a multijurisdictional voluntary collaboration launched in February 2007 to develop regional strategies to address climate change, of which BC is a member) propose that fully 49 percent of total emission reductions in the 2011-2020 period may be met through the use of “offsets” (whereby entities may offset their own emissions by purchasing ‘credits’ generated through projects such as reforestation). In BC, with our wealth of forest resources, and the economic and ecological importance of them, the treatment of forest-related carbon offsets is exceptionally salient.
Handled correctly, offset trading can minimize the overall cost of action on climate change, while creating incentives for projects and behaviours that have significant ecological and social benefits (for example providing a revenue stream for First Nations who wish to retain forests in their territories rather than logging them, or for restoration efforts). However, without due care and attention to the specifics of BC’s forestry laws and policies, and legal principles arising from Aboriginal case law, a poorly designed regulatory framework could end up contributing to poor environmental outcomes and the further marginalization of First Nations peoples and forest-dependent communities.
West Coast is committed to fostering the environmental integrity, economic feasibility and constitutional validity of British Columbia’s emerging regulatory framework for greenhouse gas reductions, including as it relates to forest protection and management.
Control over the vast majority of British Columbia's land base is allocated to a small group of large forestry companies through licenses or "timber tenures." The tenure system is a major barrier to conservation and community self-determination in BC. Under the prevailing system it's very difficult for new businesses - particularly small, locally based businesses - to become involved in processing because they cannot get access to wood supply. Worse yet, a number of our policies lie at the root of Canada’s decades-old softwood lumber dispute with the United States.
West Coast believes that the any long-term solution lies with recognition and respect for Aboriginal Title and Rights, a significant tenure take-back from the major companies, the creation of regional log yards as a foundation for market-based stumpage, and establishment, implementation and enforcement of strong environmental laws. With those changes the cut will be reduced and more wood will end up in high value manufacturing - creating jobs here in BC -instead of being shipped across the border with minimal processing.
That's why we were a founding member of the BC Coalition for Sustainable Forest Solutions, a coalition of over 50 major labour, environmental, social justice and Indigenous Peoples Organizations. Working with the Coalition, and based on the outcomes of a series of "forest solutions forums" held in communities around the province in 2003, West Coast has produced a draft private members bill embodying a comprehensive citizen's forestry reform platform.
For more information on West Coast's work on tenure and the softwood lumber dispute visit http://www.forestsolutions.ca/
From 2001 to 2003 the provincial government made the most radical changes to BC forestry law in over 50 years. During this time period virtually every natural resource and environmental law in BC was either repealed or amended. West Coast continues to monitor the impacts of these changes and advocate for progressive reform.
Deregulation Publications
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