Crown Land: Indicators and Statistics - Ministry of Forests

2.3 Land Ownership in British Columbia
Why is this Important?
There are four broad types of land ownership in BC:
private land, First Nations treaty settlement land,
provincial Crown land, and federal Crown land
(which includes Indian reserves). Effective land and
resource management requires an
understanding of how land ownership
is distributed across the province, and
how key resources are impacted within
each ownership type.
The different types of land ownership
require different types and levels of
regulatory oversight. They also offer
different investment options. Public
expectations about appropriate land
use activities may vary for the different
land ownership types.
Land ownership can be analyzed at
different geographic scales: provincial,
regional, landscape unit, even down to individual
land parcels. This section discusses land ownership at
the provincial and regional scales.
Key Statistics
The total provincial land base is 94,646,000
hectares (including fresh water); and, another
8,856,000 hectares of marine areas are under some
level of provincial jurisdiction. 5 Together, the total
land base and marine area under some level of
provincial jurisdiction is 103,502,000 hectares. The
majority of the land base calculations made within
5 The marine areas under provincial jurisdiction are comprised
of the following:
1. The foreshore intertidal zone (along the whole coast, in the
seabed of inland coastal waters, and waters within the jaws
of land).
2. The seabed of inland coastal waters and waters within the
jaws of the land.
3. The foreshores, seabed and subsoil of the Strait of Georgia,
Juan de Fuca Strait, Johnstone Strait, and Queen Charlotte
Strait.
Crown Land:
Indicators and
12 Statistics Report
this report exclude these provincial marine areas and
use the land base figure of 94,646,000 hectares.
Figure 4 breaks down the total BC land base into the
four broad ownership types.
Figure 4 Ownership of the BC Land Base
0.2%
4.9%
1.1%
93.8%
Source: Crown Land Registry
Federal 1,070,000 ha
Provincial 88,740,000
ha
Treaty settlement lands
228,000 ha
Private (excluding
treaty settlement areas)
4,608,000 ha
Private lands are owned under fee simple title, and
include not only land owned by private individuals and
corporations, but also lands owned by independent
provincial Crown corporations and agencies, and
lands owned by federal and local governments. 6
These lands may have been granted by the Province
to the owners, or sold by the province to the owners.
The total area of private lands in BC is approximately
4,608,000 hectares.
There is some uncertainty concerning the exact area
of private land. Much of this uncertainty concerns
6 This definition of “private lands” is based on a narrow Land Act
definition of Crown land which includes “almost all lands owned
by provincial ministries”, excluding lands owned by provincial
Crown corporations such as BC Hydro, and education, health
and other provincial agencies. Under the broader definition
referred to in Section 2.1, Overview (Footnote 5) the lands
owned by provincial Crown corporations such as BC Hydro,
educational, health and other provincial agencies would be
considered provincial Crown land. For a list of the agencies
potentially included in Crown land calculations see the Crown
Agency Registry at the Crown Agencies Resource Office, (see
Additional Information for details).