Introduction
Since 2011, the SCCA has provided all candidates engagement opportunities for Sunshine Coast voters to hear from candidates on environmental issues with written Q&A. This year we framed the Q&A in terms of how BC government ministries and mandates intersect with the environment. We hope the background information provided along with the questions helps inform both the candidates’ responses, and public awareness.
We posed four questions to candidates on the following topics:
➡️ BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
➡️ BC Ministry of Forests
➡️ BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy
➡️ BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation
You can read all the questions with candidate responses from October 3rd on our main page for the 2024 Provincial Election.
Background
Every ten years, the BC Ministry of Forests undertakes a Timber Supply Review (TSR) to establish how much logging will occur in the Sunshine Coast Timber Supply Area (SC-TSA) over the coming decade. BC’s Chief Forester then sets an Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) based on the findings of the TSR. Forestry tenure holders are expected to meet the AAC, and harvest the allocated timber.
The calculation of the allowable annual cut in the SC-TSA excludes logging permitted in “area based tenures”. Logging in Community Forests, Woodlots, Tree Farm Licences (TFL) and Private Managed Forest Lands (PMFL) is in addition to the logging elsewhere in the TSA.
The AAC for the Sunshine Coast TSA was set at 1.2 million cubic metres per year in 2013, and reset in 2018 at 1.98 million.
In 2021, the Province released an intention paper for ‘a new vision for sustainable forest policy in BC’. The paper, “Modernizing Forest Policy in British Columbia Setting the Intention and Leading the Forest Sector Transition” explains how government policy has not evolved quickly enough to adapt to the impacts of climate change in our forests. It promised an “imminent paradigm shift” away from a commodity-based forest sector to a more holistic management system and changes to forest policy to address the rapid decline of available timber in BC.
That year, a Forest Landscape Planning Pilot Project (FLP) was initiated for the SC-TSA. The main goal of the FLP is to enact that “paradigm shift”. A year later, a new Timber Supply Review was initiated. The Ministry of Forests proposed an AAC of 1.22 million cubic metres/yr.
The SCCA submitted a critique of the TSR Data Package, and a detailed analysis of the TSR proposal. We described how most of the productive forest left on the Sunshine Coast is outside the TSA. What is left in the TSA consists mainly of at-risk ecosystems. Including irreplaceable old growth. We asked the Chief Forester (CF) to pause the review, address data deficiencies and establish an immediate moratorium on logging of old and mature stands in at-risk ecosystems until assessments and restoration/recruitment strategies can be implemented.
In June, the first Sunshine Coast FLP Engagement Summary was released. 67% of respondents said they believe that all old growth forests in the Sunshine Coast should be protected from harvesting to enhance ecosystem integrity. Nearly all respondents also believe that old growth forests are important to help conserve biodiversity, capture and store carbon, enhance recreation and tourism, and allow for cultural and spiritual values.
In June 2024, the Deputy Chief Forester (DCF) released the Rationale for determining the AAC. The DCF acknowledged that although the “paradigm shift” has begun with the identifying of priority at-risk forests, implementation is not yet occurring. They set the AAC at 1.05 million cubic metres per year and promised to reset it, based on the outcomes of the FLP.
Although the 1.05 million cubic metres is a reduction it is still far too high. And it includes 262,500 cubic metres of mature and old forest. While we wait for the FLP to be completed, irreplaceable forests are still being cut down. Ecosystems, the species they support and the services they provide, are still being lost.
Question for Candidates
Where does your political party stand on protection of old-growth forests, at-risk ecosystems and species? If elected, will you work with the SCCA and community stakeholders to protect remaining old growth forests and at risk ecosystems; reduce allowable annual cuts and implement forest restoration and recruitment strategies on the Sunshine Coast?
Useful Resources
- Our educational campaign on Understanding Biodiversity in Coastal Forests
- Read our campaign page on old-growth forests and why protecting it matters
- History on Forestry Land Use on the Sunshine Coast
- Education on the Community Forest in Sechelt