BC Forest Quick Facts

BC's Forests

B.C.’s land base is 95 million hectares, or just a little larger than France and Germany combined.
95 per cent of B.C.’s land base is publicly owned.
Two-thirds of British Columbia’s land base - 60 million hectares- is forest land, an area larger than France.
More than half of BC’s forested area has had little or no human disturbance.
About 83 percent of BC’s forests are predominantly coniferous, 6 percent are mixed forests, and 6 percent are broadleaved.
BC’s forestland includes 25 million hectares of old-growth forest.
Many of BC’s forests are old: 62 percent are over 100 years old, 41 percent are over 140 years old, and 14 percent are over 250 years old.
BC has protected almost 4 million hectares of old-growth forest, and another 11.5 million hectares will likely never be harvested due to conservation, inaccessibility or other restrictions.
B.C. is home to less than one percent of the world’s boreal forest.
B.C. has more than 40 different species of native trees.
B.C. is Canada’s most ecologically diverse province, with temperate rainforests, dry pine forests, alpine meadows, and more.
B.C. is Canada’s most biologically diverse province; it is home to more than half of the country’s wildlife and fish species.

Coastal BC

B.C.’s Pacific coastline covers more than 25,000 kilometres.
Much coastal BC is remote wilderness yet most of B.C.’s four million residents live in the southwest corner of the province, which includes the cities of Vancouver and Victoria.
The coastal forest region of BC covers some 16.5 million hectares, including 10 million hectares of forest land. This area contains one-quarter of the world’s coastal temperate rainforest.
12 percent of the coastal area is fully protected.

Interior BC

More than 80 percent of BC’s forests are east of the Coast Mountains.
BC’s interior forests are the most vast and diverse in the province. They stretch 12,000 kilometers from the dry ponderosa pine forest in the south to the western red cedar and hemlock of the Columbia forest region to the spruce and pine boreal forest along the Yukon border.
BC’s north-central interior forest region is one and a half times as big as Germany with less than one-tenth the population of Berlin.
The north-central interior region covers 55 million hectares. Of this area, 25 million hectares is productive forest land, and more than one half of this will likely never be logged.
The southern interior region is very diverse, with dry grasslands, towering mountain ranges, fertile valleys, vast forests and mighty rivers.
The southern interior region covers 24 million hectares, and is home to some 750,000 people.
The southern interior region has more than 15 million hectares of forest land, and about half of this will likely never be logged because it is protected or currently unsuitable for environmental or economic reasons.

Protected Areas

Almost 8 percent of Canada’s forests are protected.
BC has over 13 million hectares or approximately 13.8 percent of the province protected in parks and protected areas where no forestry, mining or industrial development is allowed. This is higher than the United Nations target of 12 percent of the land base.
B.C. has designated another 14 million hectares for special management, which means values such as wildlife habitat, recreation or scenic vistas take precedence over logging and other resource development.
B.C.’s parks system is the second largest in Canada; only Canada’s national parks system is bigger.
35 million hectares of forest will likely never be logged because they are protected or are currently unsuitable for logging for environmental or economic reasons. This is an area as big as all of Germany.
3.7 million hectares of old growth forest is off-limits to development.
BC’s conservation strategies will help protect habitat for grizzly bears, spotted owls and mountain caribou.

Forest Planning

B.C. takes a co-operative approach to land use planning. Evaluations are undertaken to see that objectives for conservation are being met.
British Columbians participate directly in land use planning that leads to decisions about land and forest use.
For more than a decade, the public has decided which areas should be protected and which areas should be used for other purposes. The public has the right to review and comment on forestry plans before forest companies begin any forest activity.
The Forest Practices Code contains special measures to protect biodiversity, wildlife and fish habitat, soils, water and community watersheds.
The province relies on professional foresters, biologists, agrologists and engineers to make decisions about forest practices.
The Forest Practices Board is an independent public watchdog that reports to the public about forest practices in B.C. The board conducts audits on the forest practices of government and licence holders on public lands.
Pilot projects are conducted to test new approaches to forest management, like ecosystem based management.

Forest Certification

Canada has 123.7 million hectares of independently certified lands – more than any other country in the world.
B.C.’s policies are backed by an open, multi-faceted compliance and enforcement regime.
B.C.’s forest industry is a leader in voluntary, independent third-party certification, with 42.6 million hectares certified to sustainable forest management certification standards at the end of 2006. Nearly every major forest company in B.C. has chosen to pursue forest certification to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable forestry.
Already, 70% of BC’s annual harvest comes from operations that are certified for sustainability or meet internationally-recognized criteria for environmental management systems.
In June 2007, B.C. had 44.6 million hectares certified to at least one of three certification programs – the Canadian Standards Association’s Sustainable Forest Management Standard, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative or the Forest Stewardship Council. It has more certified land than any other jurisdiction in the world, with the exception of the entire country of Canada.
All three certification programs used in B.C. provide assurance of well-managed, sustainable forests.
An independent study comparing international forest practice regulations found that B.C. has some of the most stringent forest sustainability requirements in the world.

Forestry and BC’s Economy

B.C.’s economy is built around the forest industry. It accounts for at least 15 percent of the province’s economy.
Direct 2006 forest industry activity totaled $10 billion, representing 29 percent of good producing industry GDP and 7.4 percent of total provincial GDP.
The forest sector supports more BC communities outside the Greater Vancouver Regional District than all other business sectors combined.
More than 270,000 British Columbians (14% of the total workforce) are employed (directly or indirectly) by the forest industry.
Forestry is the number-one industry in BC’s northern interior region producing more than one fifth of Canada’s softwood lumber each year.
39 of 63 local areas outside the lower mainland list forest as the 1st or second largest source of basic income.
Forestry activity contributes approximately $17 billion to the province’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The Ministry of Finance has concluded, “Community dependence on the forest industry is significant and growing”. Forestry activity in BC generates approximately $4 billion in government revenues annually.
Direct employment in the forest industry in 2006 averaged 81,000 positions, representing 3.7 percent of total provincial employment.
When direct and indirect economic activity is included the forest industry accounts for as much as 7.4 percent of total provincial employment. (BC Ministry of Forests & Range)
In 2006, forest products made up 41 percent of all B.C. exports, with a value of roughly $13.6 billion a year.
The United States is B.C.’s main market, followed by Japan and Europe.
90 percent of BC lumber exports and 71 percent of pulp and paper products are exported to the United States.

Sustainable Forestry

The Canadian forest industry harvests less than 4 percent of the nation’s forests annually.
BC’s entire annual harvest comes from less than 200,000 hectares – less than 1 per cent of the working forest.
Almost 50% of all silviculture expenditures in Canada occur in BC.
By law all harvested areas are to be reforested. The seedlings we use are native species and none of them are genetically modified. These young forests are natural forests, not plantations.
More than 200 million seedlings, or about three seedlings for every tree cut, are planted every year to supplement natural regrowth. That’s an amazing six trees every second.
BC surpassed the 5 billionth tree planted in May 2002.

Global Warming

The forest industry has kept green house gas emissions at 1980 levels despite a 23 percent increase in energy use and a 30 percent increase in pulp and paper production.
Over 4 million tons of carbon is stored in forest products each year.
Canadian forests release a net average of 45 million tons of carbon per year due to natural causes of decay, fire, and other processes.
Early estimates indicate that Canada’s forests contain more that 89 billion tons of stored/sequestered carbon.
Buildings made of wood reduce the need to burn fossil fuels.
Compared to other materials, wood requires less energy to extract, process, transport, construct and maintain over time.
Wood is a better insulator than other materials: 15 times better than concrete and 400 times better than steel.
Growing forests absorb carbon dioxide.

Sources:
BC Ministry of Forests and Range
BC Market Outreach Network
Canadian Forest Service
Council of Forest Industries
Wood Promotion Network
Canadian Council of Forest Ministers
Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials