West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) welcomes the opportunity to make submissions to the Forest Policy Review process.
WCEL is a non-profit BC society. Since 1974, WCEL has provided free environmental legal services: legal aid – including legal representation and funding – legal research, public legal education, progressive law reform, and the maintenance of a public library of environmental legal materials. We are dedicated to empowering citizens to participate in all aspects of decision-making to protect our environment.
WCEL is a member of the Forest Caucus of the British Columbia Environmental Network. We fully support the principles articulated in the Forest Caucus’ statement, A Vision for Forest Policy Change. Our submissions are intended to build on and elaborate the fundamental principles set out in the Forest Caucus statement.
We have broken down our submissions according to four key aspects of forest law and policy in British Columbia: 1) ownership/title, 2) tenure rights, 3) forest management, 4) wood processing industries. Forest policy relating to these areas is inextricably interrelated, and may best be seen as layers of law, policy and regulation that are overlaid over one another as shown in the diagram below.
* Wood Processing Industries *
* Forest Management *
* Tenure Rights *
* Ownership / Title *
For each of these areas, our analysis and recommendations for reform have been organized according to three subheadings:
- the current system;
- recommended direction for forest policy change; and
- the legal nuts and bolts of change: getting from here to there.