The Provincial Forest Advisory Committee’s (PFAC) newly released report on forest management acknowledges long-standing problems in B.C.’s forestry system, but ultimately fails to address the core reasons meaningful reform has stalled for decades.
While the report includes some positive recommendations — including support for a publically accessible, LiDAR-based forest inventory and new regional, area-based planning structures — it does not confront the political barriers that continue to undermine forest protection, ecosystem health and public confidence.
“The biggest obstacle to better forest management in B.C. is not a lack of data — it’s a lack of political will and leadership,” said Eddie Petryshen, Wildsight Conservation Specialist. “Decisions about old-growth protection are being delayed because the system still prioritizes perceived timber supply impacts over ecological health and the public interest.”
Wildsight’s key concerns and observations from the PFAC report:
- Without the political will for change, improved data collection won’t prevent the loss of old-growth forests and irreplaceable ecosystems: A new forest inventory will improve information and transparency, but current inaction on old-growth protection and ecosystem health is driven by perceived timber supply impacts and lack of political will, not information gaps.
- Scrapping the Timber Supply Review (TSR) process is long overdue, but the proposed new regional structure is a double-edged sword: Proposals for regional ‘school board-style’ decision-making are an improvement over industry-led professional reliance, particularly if First Nations and the public are meaningfully involved. However, without strong legislative guardrails, local and regional structures could also make it easier for industry to exert influence on individual decision-makers.
- Lack of alignment with existing long-term commitments: The report does not effectively connect its recommendations to major policy promises that remain undelivered, such as implementing the Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations, including a Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Framework, protecting 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030, and forest tenure reform.
- New regional structure without tenure reform is a missed opportunity: Currently, five corporations in B.C. ‘control’ roughly half of B.C.’s public forest (by cut volume). Until that changes, this new regional framework offers only limited potential — both for more local control of forests, and to keep logs and jobs in the regions from whence they came.
- More pilots instead of real reform: The report leans heavily on pilot projects and incremental adjustments rather than the broad reform that’s needed to reset forest management priorities.
- Failure to confront professional reliance gaps: The report does not meaningfully address the well-documented failures of professional reliance, a system that has consistently favoured industry interests over independent oversight and public accountability.
“B.C. has been here before,” said Petryshen. “You can adjust planning units, add oversight, or collect more data, but if authority and influence continue to flow from the same place, outcomes will not change.”
“Tenure reform, ecosystem-based decision-making, and enforceable standards are not new ideas — they are long-standing, undelivered promises,” said Petryshen. “Unless the PFAC report is followed up by broad-scale legislative change, it risks becoming yet another document that gives the illusion of progress, yet fails to deliver any real solutions.”