Social license in the forest industry: Q&A with Derek Nighbor

Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries

August 8, 2022

CFI sat down with Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) president and CEO Derek Nighbor to talk about what it means on a national scale to have, or lack, social license, why it matters, and what we, as an industry, should be doing about it. “We just had a poll that was released from our partners at Abacus Data. It shows clearly that Canadians are with the forest sector. If you look at the group who view the sector as very positive to positive, the numbers show 46 per cent of Canadians find themselves in that category. The negative and very negative is at 16 per cent. Another big block is 39 per cent who still don’t have an opinion. For us as a sector, we’re not going to ignore the people who have negative views – I think those conversations remain important – but there is going to be an element of that group that is immovable.”