Public involvement in land use planning

Most of British Columbia’s 95 million hectares are publicly owned. For this reason, the public has input into decisions about how this land is used. Overall decisions are made through land use planning processes, such as Land and Resource Management Plans. These are developed with public input and approved by the provincial government. This input helps determine what areas are set aside as parks, and what areas are available for forestry and other uses.

• For more information on land use planning, contact the Integrated Land Management Bureau.

Management of public forest lands

Public forest and range lands are managed for sustainability by the Ministry of Forests and Range. The Ministry enables the use of public lands by individuals, communities and private companies through licence.

• For more information on tenures administration, see this material from the Resource Tenures and Engineering Branch.

Public input under FRPA

All forest and range licence holders must comply with laws in place to protect forest values, notably, the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA). Before conducting any activities like logging or road building, a licensee must prepare a Forest Stewardship Plan or a Woodlot Licence Plan. This plan sets out how the licensee will address government objectives for the protection of wildlife, fish, biodiversity, soils, water, forage, recreation, resource features, visual quality and cultural heritage resources.

By law, these plans must be made available for public review and comment. Generally, a licensee must advertise that the plan is available, and allow at least 60 days for input. This process allows the public, First Nations, and those whose activities might be affected by timber harvesting activities to provide input on these plans.

• For more details on the review and comment process, see the brochure: Be Heard: Get Involved in Forest Stewardship Plan Review.

Government cannot approve any plan unless the licensee proves that it has provided the public and stakeholders with the opportunity to review and comment on the plan in a manner required by law.

• For more information on FRPA, see the training module: Training Module: Public, First Nations and Other Resource Users.

The role of forestry professionals

Forestry professionals have an important role under FRPA. These professionals include foresters, engineers, geoscientists, biologists and agrologists. These individuals are involved in the preparation of Forest Stewardship Plans, along with other forestry activities. Professions are regulated by associations that ensure the public is protected by enforcing accountability of their members.

• For more information contact:
  • Association of British Columbia Forest Professionals
  • Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia
  • Association of Professional Biologists of British Columbia
  • British Columbia Institute of Agrologists

Improving forest practices over time

FRPA has been designed to be flexible over time, to respond to new scientific knowledge and actual forest practices. One of the Ministry’s main roles is to monitor and improve forest practices where possible. This work involves field evaluations and data analysis. These are known as “effectiveness evaluations” and seek to find out if forest practices are effective in addressing government objectives for the protection of forest values. This work can lead to recommendations for changes to the rules or forest practices.

• For more information, see Forest and Range Evaluation Program (FREP).