COMMUNITY FORESTRY

The Community Forest Agreement (CFA) is an area-based licence operating on Crown land, that provides the exclusive right to harvest timber within the CFA area, and the right to manage botanical forest products. Licences are long-term, 25 years, replaceable every 10 years. The CFA tenure was developed to give local communities the opportunity to manage local forests for the benefit of those communities, in a manner consistent with locally defined objectives and values. CFAs are governed by the Forest Act and the Forest and Range Practices Act, and all other applicable statutes and regulations.

Since the development of the CFA tenure in 1998, BC has issued 61 CFAs across BC with another 4 formally in the application process. This document includes the size and annual allowable cut for each community forest Status of Community Forests in BC

Community forests are guided by a set of specific goals given by the Provincial Government for the Community Forest Program:

1. Provide long-term opportunities for achieving a range of community objectives, values and priorities.
2. Diversify the use of and benefits derived from the community forest agreement area.
3. Provide social and economic benefits to British Columbia.
4. Undertake community forestry consistent with sound principles of environmental stewardship that reflects a broad spectrum of values.
5. Promote community involvement and participation.
6. Promote communication and strengthen relationships between aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities and persons.
7. Foster innovation.
8. Advocate forest worker safety.

The benefits of community forestry vary between communities as they each identify their unique values and priorities. For example, one rural mountain community has identified water protection as their highest priority, while a First Nation community forest sees education and long-term employment of band members as their key priorities. The numerous benefits of community forestry include: 

• Long-term community economic development resulting in the increased resilience of rural communities. 
• Local employment in rural communities. 
• Local-level decision making that leads to locally appropriate decisions and improves the incentives to consider the long-term benefits of sustainable management. 
• Building new relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. In addition to community forests where First Nations are owners or partners, many community forest organizations include First Nations representation on their boards. In many cases, First Nations are engaged in cooperative planning, share profits, have MOUs and employment contracts, and work with community forest organizations in capacity building activities like training and education. 
• Increased potential to resolve conflicts over timber harvesting in watersheds and other sensitive areas. 
• Protection of drinking watersheds, viewscapes, and other values that are important to communities and to local and regional economic activity. 
• Enhanced opportunities for education and research. Community forests can be laboratories for testing innovative forest practices. 
• Community participation in resource management leads to an improved awareness of forest management among members of the public.
• Greater opportunity to manage forests adjacent to communities to reduce the threat of wildfire and adapt to climate change.

Communities with an interest in a community forest should enquire with the local Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development District office. With the timber harvesting landbase generally fully allocated in BC, the release of new areas for community forest opportunities is challenging. 

Here is some helpful guidance based on experience: 

• Meaningful engagement of local Indigenous peoples in the community forest initiative must be cultivated. 
• Advocacy from local elected government reps at UBCM with the Minister is important as are letters of support from interested stakeholders, including industry. 
• It is important to participate in the local Timber Supply Review and represent your interest to acquire a community forest. Once the volume is made available by the government for a community forest through the Review, communities are directly invited to apply for a community forest agreement.