Ecological and Cultural Values on the Line
Deregulation of thousands of hectares of forest land on Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii
Another Blow to the Historic Social Contract in BC’s Forests
Recent agreements between Forest Companies and the BC government have removed thousands of hectares of land from the protection of the Forest and Range Practices Act.
Historically, timber companies gained access to timber rights on public and indigenous lands in exchange for accepting certain social and environmental responsibilities, including bringing some of their private lands into the tree farm licence (TFL) system. “In many cases, these private lands (‘Schedule A’ lands) have been managed as a form of quasi-Crown land for close to four decades,” says West Coast staff lawyer Jessica Clogg. Unlike other private forest lands, TFL Schedule A lands are subject to the Forest Practices Code/Forest and Range Practices Act, and are subject to restrictions on raw log exports. Until now…
Dismantling Timber Tenures: Another Blow to Communities and the Environment
On July 13, 2004, the provincial Ministry of Forests announced the removal and deregulation of thousands of hectares of lands in tree farm licences. The hardest hit areas were Tree Farm Licence 44 on southern Vancouver Island (70,300 hectares), and Tree Farm Licence 39 on Haida Gwaii and along the mainland coast (17,400 hectares), both held by Weyerhaeuser.
“Over the past three years,” says Clogg, “we have chronicled how virtually every aspect of the historic ‘social contract’ has been torn up by the provincial government through recent forestry law changes, while the control exercised by private companies over forest lands has dramatically increased. The recent actions taken by the provincial Ministry of Forests are perhaps the most extreme example of deregulation yet.”
Regulations that apply to forestry operations on private non-TFL lands are virtually non-existent (even the minimal requirements that previously applied have been largely eliminated by the new Private Managed Forest Land Act and the repeal of the Forest Land Reserve Act). These changes will have the effect of lowering environmental standards even further and eliminating previously available opportunities for constitutionally required consultation and accommodation of Aboriginal Peoples.
The TFL deregulation was preceded by amendments to the Forest Act made in Bill 33. This Bill confirmed that with the consent (or in effect on the request of) the licensee, the boundaries of a TFL could be changed, including the removal of private lands. The amendment was accomplished through a written agreement signed by the MOF and Weyerhaeuser. Certain limited conditions on the amendment are contained in a letter from Forest Minister Michael de Jong to Weyerhaeuser, dated July 9, 2004. However, this letter is not referenced in the legal document that changes the TFL boundaries and therefore the legal status of the limited conditions is unclear.
Legal status aside, the conditions are completely inadequate to safeguard environmental, social and cultural values on these lands. For example, environmentalists, forest workers and Aboriginal Peoples have repeatedly voiced their view that Forest Stewardship Council is the only credible system of forestry certification, yet the conditions require Weyerhaeuser to maintain ‘ISO and/or CSA certification.’
“CSA is an inadequate industry-driven system with no performance standards except those which the company writes themselves,” says Clogg, “while ISO is a systems-based approach that does not even carry out certification of forest management.”
Likewise, with regard to raw log exports, Weyerhaeuser’s “voluntary” moratorium will last only until 2006, after which logs – and BC jobs – can be shipped offshore.
Disregard for clear public opposition and Aboriginal rights
In a similar proposal in 1999, the Province planned to deregulate and privatize land as part of a deal to avoid paying MacMillan Bloedel $83 million as compensation for park creation. The report that followed consultation meetings in affected areas was clear:
- 1,100 written public submissions were virtually unanimous in expressing opposition;
- The consultant who conducted the review was “of the opinion that this public consultation has given a fair representation of the broader public view”; and,
- “arguments made against privatization of Crown land were applied equally to deregulation of Schedule A lands” by members of the public.
The government then dropped the deregulation and privatization proposal and money compensation was paid.
Now the present provincial government has deregulated the very lands (TFL 39 and 44) that were at issue in the 1999 proposal.
“Given the clear record of widespread public opposition to the previous proposal, it is even more outrageous that the current government has proceeded with the removal of lands from tree farm licenses,” says Clogg. “And this time it isn’t even part of an out of court settlement – it is a straightforward corporate give-away worth millions of dollars.”
Not only did the decision go against public opinion, it was also made without recognition of a constitutionally entrenched duty to accommodate aboriginal interests. Therefore, the TFL amendment is vulnerable to legal challenge by the Hupacasath, Haida or other Aboriginal Peoples whose territories are affected. Tenure-related decisions made without consultation and accommodation of Aboriginal Peoples may be challenged by way of judicial review. Neither the Province nor Weyerhaeuser even informed First Nations that the land removal was occurring; this, despite the fact that legal proceedings commenced by the Haida related to TFL 39 are presently before the Supreme Court of Canada!
Working with First Nations, community groups and others, West Coast has championed a package of reforms to forest laws that would protect the land, ensure the long-term health of forest dependent communities, and give communities a greater voice and control over use and management of forests. Despite success in building a broad base of support for positive law reforms, changes by the provincial government have reduced environmental protection and increased control of the land by timber companies. West Coast Environmental Law has written to Minister de Jong urging him to reconsider this and other rash forestry law changes.
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