Community forests manage for multiple values at multiple scales in increasingly uncertain landscapes

What is a community forest?

A community forest advances sustainable forest management based on:

• local values
• local benefits
• local decision-making

Community forests are a unique form of tenure that differ from most provincial forest tenures that grant licences to forest companies to harvest specified forest areas or timber volume on Crown land over the long term. Most provinces and territories in Canada have some type of community forests with the majority concentrated in British Columbia (BC), Ontario and Québec. The definitions of community forestry and the legal frameworks that enable it to vary from province to province. They range from special licences issued by a province to co-management with a province, industry joint ventures and Indigenous-led initiatives. Each community forest is unique, since the local community manages it and sets goals according to their values. Community forests also offer an avenue for governments and the private sector to engage in forest-sector partnerships with Indigenous Nations.

Examples of community forests across Canada

In BC…

BC is unique in Canada with its area-based forest licence called the Community Forest Agreement (CFA). The tenure was introduced in 1998 in response to a decade of conflict over forest management and calls for greater community control.

• BC currently has 60 CFA holders, ranging from 361 to 184,682 hectares.
• Half of CFAs are held by Indigenous Nations or in partnership with non-Indigenous communities.
• Licences are long-term, granting communities the exclusive right to harvest timber and manage botanical forest products within a fixed area. 
• Governance is by community-based entities, including community corporations, limited partnerships, societies and co-ops.

Twenty-five years later, CFA licence holders are demonstrating the success of this model and are creating multiple benefits for rural and Indigenous communities, including:

• local jobs
• community dividends
• investments in education, infrastructure and recreation
• re-investments in forests for enhanced stewardship, climate change adaptation and wildfire risk reduction

While the rights conferred by a CFA are limited to harvesting timber, the benefits are more than just economic. Many CFAs go above and beyond legal requirements and are creating social, cultural and ecological benefits for their communities. This is in part due to provincial policies that support the unique nature of these tenures by providing a degree of autonomy and flexibility, while keeping more of the economic benefit from resource revenues local.

To date, the success of BC’s CFAs, as a particular legal framework to enable community forests, comes from supportive provincial forest policies, local ingenuity, as well as persistent local advocacy and collaboration.

Across Canada…

• In 2021, Community Forests International announced a climate change action collaboration—the Common Ground Project—on the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik with the Ulnooweg Development Group, which supports Indigenous initiatives and the Nova Scotia Family Forest Centre.
• Nova Scotia implemented a pilot project with the Medway Community Forest Cooperative in 2013. On Cape Breton, the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, representing five Mi’kmaq communities, is working with the Province of Nova Scotia on shared governance of the Kluscap Wilderness Area. This is part of a growing trend across Canada to promote Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs).
• In New Brunswick, community organizations like the Conservation Council of NB and Falls Brook Centre have promoted community forests for decades. The Upper Miramichi Community Forest Partnership has also made efforts to establish a community forest.
• The Model Forest of Newfoundland and Labrador promotes partnerships among government, industry, academia, environmental and community organizations to collectively find solutions to promote sustainable forest management. The Innu of Labrador have worked with the province to develop a mutually acceptable ecosystem-based forest management plan, which includes establishing protected areas based on a 2003 interim agreement.
• An interesting example of innovative forest management and tenure is the Algonquin First Nation of Kitigan Zibi. On their own reserve “common lands,” they focus on the ecology and environment, promoting biodiversity to mitigate climate change. Off reserve, on Québec public lands that are still part of their traditional territory, the Natural Resource and Wildlife Office carries out silvicultural contracts that provide well-paid employment to community members and ensure the Office is financially viable.
• Ontario’s community forest pilot project lasted five years in the 1990s. In the mid-2000s, following an economic collapse in the forest sector, Ontario brought in two new forms of tenure: Enhanced Sustainable Forest Licences and Local Forest Management Corporations. Both required a broader range of stakeholders on licence holder boards, particularly Indigenous and local community representation. While a few of these may be considered community forests, Ontario has not gone as far as other jurisdictions to introduce a specific community forest licence.
• In the Prairie provinces, Indigenous-industry partnerships are emerging. In Manitoba in 2018, Canadian Kraft Paper and Nekoté, a corporation representing seven First Nations, formed a 50-50 partnership—the Nisokapawino Forestry Management Corporation—to co-manage almost nine million hectares of northern Manitoba boreal forest. This is the largest forest tenure in North America overlapping with the traditional territories of nine First Nations.
• In Saskatchewan, Sakâw Askiy Management Inc. is a partnership of eight industry and First Nation groups holding the Prince Albert Forest Management Agreement for just over three million hectares of boreal forest. The business model is designed to give operating decision-making rights to local knowledge holders.
• In Alberta, municipalities and local organizations are following a North American trend to establish urban Community Food Forests to provide food and ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and water management.
• The Yukon First Nations Land Claims Settlement Act and the Forest Resources Act provide for Renewable Resource Councils (RRCs). Both the territorial government and First Nations are responsible for determining membership in the RRCs, which act as an avenue for First Nations to provide input into the management of renewable resources. Similarly, in the Northwest Territories under land claim agreements, First Nations have established RRCs and Renewable Resource Boards for settlement lands. Some First Nations are developing their own forest management plans.
• While most community forests are established on Crown land, many are also located on private lands. One good example is the Eastern Ontario Model Forest, made up primarily of private landowners.

A path forward for community forestry in Canada

More communities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, want local forests to be managed in a way that meets community values and expectations. Many are learning from the successes and challenges of existing community forests and seeking to secure forest management rights for their communities. Nearly 30 years on, continued advocacy, policy learning, and forest policy reforms are needed if governments want to support additional and thriving community forests. Reforms include redistributing harvesting rights to Indigenous and rural communities, promoting changes to forest management regulations that reduce the emphasis on timber management, promote management of non-timber forest products and ecosystem services, and broaden the scope of management rights to allow more autonomy and flexibility for local solutions.

There remains a need to expand the diversity of tenure arrangements and increase the quality of interaction between non-Indigenous stakeholders and Indigenous Nations. Reconciliation based on a recognition of Indigenous rights, social licence and trust is achieved one conversation at a time.

Both provinces and the federal government have a role to play in supporting community forests. Community forests provide a collective approach to sustainable forest management based on a recognition of Indigenous rights, shared benefits and local decision making.