Future Forest Ecosystems of BC: Draft Recommendations

In this submission West Coast Environmental Law provides detailed comments on the BC Ministry of Forests and Range (MoFR) report “Future Forest Ecosystems of BC: Draft Recommendations for Review and Comment. West Coast agrees that adapting BC’s forest management to manage for ecological resilience is an essential component of proactively addressing current and future climate change.  Only by prioritizing ecological resilience (including maintaining biological diversity and the ecosystem patterns, processes and structural attributes that are responsible for that biodiversity) can we hope to have future forest ecosystems in BC that sustain human communities and economies, as well as other species and ecological services. Achieving the goal of managing for ecological resilience will require integrated changes to legislation, policy, and planning, as well as shifts within responsible institutions and agencies.  Doing so will also make BC forest management more compatible with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, the only green mark of approval for responsible forest management considered credible by environmental, social justice and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations globally.