Public and stakeholder involvement in forest governance: rethinking the forest advisory committee approach in Canada
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Date
2022-04-27
Authors
Amani, Rojin
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Abstract
The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) is a popular governance structure in Canada for governments and forest companies to engage public and local stakeholders in forest management planning. These committees are established across Canada to incorporate diverse values in forest decision-making and to move towards Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). However, scholars have noted many problems and shortcomings associated with these committees and suggest there is a need to rethink the FAC approach for involving the public and stakeholder organizations in forest management by developing a new framework for such involvement. This study 1) investigate how various jurisdictions involve the public and stakeholders in forest management decisions, 2) identify eading-edge approaches for involvement in forest management decisions that are more democratic and deliberative, 3) examine ways the public and stakeholders, other than forest product companies and government, can be incentivized to be involved in forest management, 4) develop a framework for involvement in forest decisions in Canada in the context of the tenure approach that captures the findings related to the above objectives and ensures greater public involvement. The study take a qualitative case study approach, utilizing document review, semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis. Overall, the data reveal that public participation in forest governance in Canada is weak, especially at the strategic and normative levels of decision making. The results of this study suggest a three-level framework for engagement, starting from forest policy and normative decisions at the top, to strategic decisions in the middle, and operational decisions in the bottom for public and stakeholder involvement. Each level requires its own distinct programs for participation, utilizing different tools and techniques, mainly because each needs to involve a different range of participants and address different forestry issues. However, overlap of some of the participants in each process and linkages between participation programs is also highly desirable. The FAC approach is not an appropriate model for getting public input to all these levels of decisions, but with some improvements it may still have utility in relation to forest management decisions that are operational in nature.
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Keywords
Canada, Forest Advisory Committee, Sustainable Forest Management, Industrial Scale Forestry, Public Participation in Forest Management, Forest Governance, Incentives Structures, Meaningful Public Participation in Forestry, Forestry Decision Making Levels