Course:FRST270/Wiki Projects/Logging Management on New Brunswick's Crown Land

Logging Management on New Brunswick's Crown Land

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Description

Description of the community forestry case study – Where located; history; national or regional context (if appropriate)

Introduction: New Brunswick is one of Canada's Maritime Provinces, located on the eastern seaboard. It has the highest forest coverage rate in Canada and a long history with community forestry management. The Government of New Brunswick, First Nations, forestry companies, and local residents all plays an important in managing forest in New Brunswick. In New Brunswick, almost half of the forest resource remains in Crown land, which provides wildlife habitat, landscape, recreational opportunities, high-quality water and air, and a huge amount of economic value. In this term paper, I will discuss about who has the right to management New Brunswick’s crown land forest resources, and what kind of benefits people could get from this area of land. I will also analyse the conflicts between different stakeholders and give some recommendations in the end.

History: For thousands of years, New Brunswick’s forests have provided a habitat for wildlife along with a wealth of economic, recreational and spiritual value. The trade of lumber and other wood products that has taken place since the early 1800’s and remains one of provincial economy’s largest sectors (ForestInfo.ca, 2017). Since then, New Brunswick’s forests are the province’s most valuable natural resource.

New Brunswick’s Crown Land: As everyone knows, A Province’s land is managed by multiply groups of people, and different land has different purpose of use. New Brunswick’s Crown Land including land covered by water that is not privately owned in the Province of New Brunswick. These lands are managed by various provincial Departments (NB Department of Nature Resources, 2012). Based on the government documents, “Crown lands are managed in the best interest of the people of New Brunswick, and the use of Crown land is a privilege for all residents of New Brunswick and is made available for people to use and enjoy” (NB Department of Nature Resources, 2012).

As forest covers a large area of New Brunswick’s Crown land, it is important to know the NB Crown forest land breakdown. There are five types of forest land exist in NB and they all have a different purpose. Area in timber production covers the biggest percentage (61%), where the forest is managed primarily for timber production. Conservation forest is the second large area, which covers 23% of Crown forest area. The conservation forest aims to protect nature environment, includes wetland buffer zones, old forest communities, and wildlife habitats. Non-operable forest, unmapped stream buffer, and forest are “in debate” are the three other types of NB Crown forest land components, which covers five to six percent individually (Report by the New Brunswick Crown Land Task Force, 2011).

Tenure arrangements

Tenure arrangements. Describe the nature of the tenure: freehold or forest management agreement/arrangements, duration, etc.

Tenure and Administrative Arrangements:

The Government of New Brunswick, First Nations, logging and timber companies are sharing the management tenure for New Brunswick’s Crown land. New Brunswick’s Crown land is divided into ten timber licenses, and each timber license is licensed through a 25 years forest management agreement to a large forest-based company, which also called as a licensee. Licensees are the managers of Crown licenses under the administration of the Department of Natural Resources. (Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 2003). The ten Crown licenses are presently leased to six licensees. Each license also has an assigned number of sub-licensees. There are currently about 62 sub-licensees. Many sub-licensees operate smaller forest-based mills (Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 2003).

Major licensees are hold by large logging companies, include J.D. Irving, UPM Kymmene, Weyerhaeuser, Nexfor Fraser and Bowater (Jake Wilson and John Graham, 2015). There are 15 Mi’kmaq and Maliseet First Nations communities across New Brunswick, with a combined population of around 12,000, or about 1.4% of the provincial population. First Nations are also involved in forest harvesting. In New Brunswick, there are 15 aboriginal communities, and all of them hold an aboriginal forest tenures (Jean-François Fortier, 2012). According to First Nations Forest Agreement, the Department of Energy and Resource Development has allocated 5% of the Annual Allowable Cut on provincial Crown lands to First Nations communities since 1998, in order to generate employment and economic development opportunities for First Nations people (First Nation Forest Agreement, 1998).

The annual allowable cut volume is New Brunswick has been changing because of various reasons. In 2012, the government of New Brunswick released a new forestry management policy for Crown land. The Newest plan establish an annual allowable cut (AAC) for softwood species of 3.27 million cubic metres, which is the same AAC as in the 2007-2012 management plan; it reduces the hardwood AAC from 1.77 million cubic metres in the 2007-2012 plan to 1.41 million cubic metres because this 21 per cent reduction will ensure a sustainable hardwood supply in the future (New Crown land management plan, 2012).

Administrative arrangements

Administrative arrangements. Describe the management authority and the reporting system.

The Government of New Brunswick, First Nations, logging and timber companies are sharing the management tenure for New Brunswick’s Crown land. New Brunswick’s Crown land is divided into ten timber licenses, and each timber license is licensed through a 25 years forest management agreement to a large forest-based company, which also called as a licensee. Licensees are the managers of Crown licenses under the administration of the Department of Natural Resources. (Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 2003). The ten Crown licenses are presently leased to six licensees. Each license also has an assigned number of sub-licensees. There are currently about 62 sub-licensees. Many sub-licensees operate smaller forest-based mills (Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 2003). Major licensees are hold by large logging companies, include J.D. Irving, UPM Kymmene, Weyerhaeuser, Nexfor Fraser and Bowater (Jake Wilson and John Graham, 2015). There are 15 Mi’kmaq and Maliseet First Nations communities across New Brunswick, with a combined population of around 12,000, or about 1.4% of the provincial population. First Nations are also involved in forest harvesting. In New Brunswick, there are 15 aboriginal communities, and all of them hold an aboriginal forest tenures (Jean-François Fortier, 2012). According to First Nations Forest Agreement, the Department of Energy and Resource Development has allocated 5% of the Annual Allowable Cut on provincial Crown lands to First Nations communities since 1998, in order to generate employment and economic development opportunities for First Nations people (First Nation Forest Agreement, 1998). The annual allowable cut volume is New Brunswick has been changing because of various reasons. In 2012, the government of New Brunswick released a new forestry management policy for Crown land. The Newest plan establish an annual allowable cut (AAC) for softwood species of 3.27 million cubic metres, which is the same AAC as in the 2007-2012 management plan; it reduces the hardwood AAC from 1.77 million cubic metres in the 2007-2012 plan to 1.41 million cubic metres because this 21 per cent reduction will ensure a sustainable hardwood supply in the future (New Crown land management plan, 2012).

Affected Stakeholders

Social actors (stakeholders, user groups) who are affected stakeholders, their main relevant objectives, and their relative power

Indigenous people is a very important affected stakeholder in managing NB’s forestry resources, as the forest land is their home land for thousands of years. Any changes in managing New Brunswick's forest resource would directly affects First Nation's living situation.

Being an affected stakeholder, First Nations have many expectations for forestry in New Brunswick. When I spend my time in New Brunswick, I learned that many indigenous people believe they are a part of the nature, they use the natural resources with respect and return themselves back to nature when they pass away. Therefore, the meaning of forest to them does not have the same meaning to other stakeholders, who manage the forest resource as a product and hope this product could bring only economic benefits.

In Stephen Wyatt's report, it summaries four major expectations from First Nation’s people. The first one is economic benefits. Forest is a gift from nature, First Nation’s people use it to build house and other shelter and also make money by selling the extra wood resources. The second expectation is participation in forest governance. Right now, most of the government is running by people who are not First Nations, even right now more and more people pay attention to indigenous people’ idea, but take participate in government would make theirs opinion more important and stronger than being consulted. The third expectation is environmental protection, First Nations recognize the nature world is their home, and forest is a vital elements in the nature environment. First Nations must want to protect the forest at the most possible level, even they also need to cut trees as an economic resource. The Last expectation is respect for First Nations rights, which means they want to us to not only respect themselves, but also their opinions their thought, and their rights (Stephen Wyatt, Marieke Kessels & Frank van Laerhoven, 2015).

Interested Outside Stakeholders

Social actors (stakeholders, user groups) who are interested stakeholders, outside the community, their main relevant objectives, and their relative power

Comparing to First Nations as the only affected stakeholder, they are many interested stakeholders involved in New Brunswick’s forest resource management. The first interested stakeholder come to my mind is large forest-based companies and their employees. The wood supple industry company is the main stakeholder, and the forest industry is a leading contributor to New Brunswick’s economy (Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 2003).

The Government of New Brunswick is another large interested stakeholder group. The Department of Nature Resource and Department of Energy and Resource Development are in charging for making relative forest polices and regulations; the tax revenues from wood supply company is one of the vital income for Government of New Brunswick. According to Statistic Canada, each cubic metre of wood available for harvest on Crown land is worth $49.56 to the government when tax revenues from employees in the sector are added (Report by the New Brunswick Crown Land Task Force, 2011). The other interested stakeholder is the wood exporters. The wood resources have been exporting to many countries in the world. However, there is a large and unreported volume of New Brunswick hardwood and softwood have being exported to Maine each year (Thorn Erdlel, 1999). Moreover, New Brunswick’s environmentalists, forestry scientists, logging business consultant are all the interested stakeholders.

Discussion

A discussion of the aims and intentions of the community forestry project and your assessment of relative successes or failures. You should also include a discussion of critical issues or conflicts in this community and how they are being managed

The current situation in New Brunswick is, there are more than 750,000 citizens living in the province, and the softwood supply reached its limit since 1980s (Thorn Erdel, 1999). The economic and environment conflict has been growing. Base on research: with an increasing market, the opportunity to use the forest as a means of wealth creation will increase and the resulting economic pressure to harvest wood will increase. At the same time, the set of environmental and social reasons for addressing a broader set of values in forest management is growing and it can be argued that continued economic wealth will depend, in part, upon the degree to which environmental and social values are addressed (Thorn Erdel, 1999). Thus, the conflict between timber and non-timber values, as illustrated here for New Brunswick, will persist and probably intensify.

Assessment

Your assessment of the relative power of each group of social actors, and how that power is being used

Hard to find

Recommendations

Your recommendations about this community forestry project

Base on all the previous sections, I would like to give some recommendations in managing New Brunswick’s Crown land forest resource. The first one is update forest related policies and regulations based on different situation and time. For example, the government should monitor New Brunswick’s forest resource and release the most reasonable annual allowable cut amount by every five years.

The second recommendation is encourage aboriginal communities develop co-management agreements with local logging and timber industry, or with the provincial government. In this case, the affected and interested stakeholders could manage the same area of forest resource together, which could promote mutual understanding and reduce conflicts.

The third recommendation is developing community-based forest management, just like what I learned from this course, the community forest management would help the community measure different community interests and values, which are reflected in management goals.

The last recommendation is having more public participate in reviewing the objectives of management for New Brunswick’s Crown land, in order to provide a mandate for the direction and magnitude of change in forest management (Sherrie Blakney, 2003).

References

1. ForestInfo.ca, 2017. Vegetation Management in New Brunswick. http://forestinfo.ca/new-brunswick/ 2. Department of Natural Resources, Crown Lands Branch, November 27, 2012. Using New Brunswick Lands, Government of New Brunswick. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/nr-rn/pdf/en/ForestsCrownLands/WindExplorationPackage.pdf 3. Report by the New Brunswick Crown Land Task Force, 2011. A path for a sustainable economic forest in New Brunswick. 4. Atlantic Provinces Economic Council, 2003. The New Brunswick Forest Industry: The Potential Economic Impact of Proposals to Increase the Wood Sup. 5. Jake Wilson and John Graham, March 31, 2015. Relationships between First Nations and the Forest Industry: The Legal and Policy Context. A report for: The National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA; The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC); and the First Nations Forestry Program (FNFP). 6. Jean-François Fortier, 2012. Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Collaboration in Forestry: An Inventory of Practices across Canada, A State of Knowledge Report Supplement, Sustainable Forest Management Network. 7. First Nation Forest Agreement, 1998. Department of Energy and Resource Development. http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/departments/erd.html 8. New Crown land management plan, March 30, 2012. Crown land management plan addresses environmental, economic and social needs, Government of New Brunswick. 9. tephen Wyatt, Marieke Kessels & Frank van Laerhoven, 2015. Indigenous Peoples' Expectations for Forestry in New Brunswick: Are Rights Enough, Society & Natural Resources, 28:6, 625-640, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2014.970735 10. Thorn A. Erdlel, 1999. The conflict in managing New Brunswick's forests for timber and other values. 11. Sherrie Blakney, 2003. Aboriginal Forestry in New Brunswick: Conflicting Paradigms. Volume 31(1).