The Burns Lake Community Forest (BLCF) answered questions from the public during an open house held on Jan. 26, 2017.
Approximately 10 community members attended the event.
According to BLCF’s general manager Frank Varga, one of the goals of holding the open house was to inform the public about BLCF’s pursuit to attain FSC certification – an international certification and labeling system dedicated to promoting responsible forest management of the world’s forests.
The FSC certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests that are evaluated to meet FSC’s strict environmental and social standards. Varga said the FSC certification embodies key principles that the BLCF “holds to the utmost” such as ‘free prior informed consent’ with First Nations on operations on their traditional territories within the K1A licence area, as well as environmental stewardship.
The environmental stewardship requirements to attain FSC certification include developing short and long-term development plans, showing current high conservation areas and gathering feedback from local community members and organizations interested in the BLCF operations.
Varga said most questions from the public during the open hosue were around what the BLCF executive has been doing to set the community forest up for long-term success.
“I had a lot of positive feedback around our intent to engage the community in meaningful conversation on the proceedings of the community forest,” said Varga.
As part of this engagement session, the BLCF held community meetings with both the Burns Lake Band and Wet’suwet’en First Nation in their respective communities. Varga said this was done to “inform, engage and ensure meaningful conversations with BLCF’s partners.”
Although the annual allowable cut of the BLCF is expected to drop to 63,000 cubic metres in 2020, Varga said he remains confident of the important role played by the community forest in Burns Lake.
