Forest Management Certification Assessment Report for - Rainforest ...

4. CLIENT SPECIFIC BACKGROUND INFORMATION4.1. Ownership and land tenure descriptionTembec’s Kootenay Central and Kootenay Columbia operating areas that are assessed in thisreport are within the Kootenay Lake and Cranbrook Timber Supply Areas (TSAs) in the East andWest Kootenay region of British Columbia, Canada. Tembec manages these two operating areasunder the provisions of two Forest Licences issued to them by the government of BritishColumbia - Forest Licence (FL) A20212 in the Kootenay Lake TSA and FL A19040 in theCranbrook Timber Supply Area (TSA). The land is described as Crown land, meaning theownership remains with the provincial government on behalf of the public. There are no treatieswith the Ktunaxa First Nation that addresses their claim to ownership of the land. The Ktunaxaare negotiating a comprehensive land claim covering a large area including Tembec’s operatingareas with governments.Forest Licences are granted for 15 years and are replaced with a new FL every 10 years providedperformance requirements are met. They are considered long-term tenures. They are volumebasedtenures that allow Tembec to harvest, grow, process, sell and distribute a specified volumeof wood products annually from the two TSAs. Tembec retains the reforestation responsibilityuntil trees are free growing and has responsibility for road construction, deactivation andmaintenance within the area of its operations. Tembec harvests their assigned annual cut fromtheir assigned operating area in each TSA. These operating areas have no formal legal status butare clearly identified and mapped areas of land within which Tembec has, for many years, hadthe exclusive rights to cut the timber resources. Other forest companies also have forest licencesand are allowed to harvest a specified volume each year from other areas within each of theTSAs. Like Tembec they also have discrete operating areas in other locations in the TSA.4.2. Legislative and government regulatory contextThe British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range (MOFR) represents the government and thepeople of British Columbia in ensuring that Tembec complies with the provisions of the ForestAct, Forest and Range Practices Act and a host of other provincial legislation. During the twoyears preceding this assessment, Tembec has been required to have forest development plansreviewed and approved by MOFR staff and in place before detailed site level planning andoperations can begin. MOFR compliance and enforcement staff inspect Tembec’s operations andinvestigate any observed violations of legislation.Tembec’s foresters and forest technicians are governed by the provisions of the Foresters Act inthe preparation of forest management plans and the supervision of all forest operations. In thepast three years, forestry professionals have been given increased responsibility for stewardship,as the provincial government has placed an increased reliance on professionals, and reduced theoversight and approval role of government.The provincial government takes a lead role in strategic land-use planning and has led thedevelopment of the Kootenay Boundary Land Use Plan to provide broad management directionin this region for more than 10 years. In the past, the provincial government also led local levelPage 52 of 89