British Columbians desire sustainable use of the forests they hold in trust for future generations. Sustainable use can be defined in many ways. For the purpose of the Forest and Range Evaluation Program (FREP), sustainable use means:
- managing forests to meet present needs without compromising the needs of future generations;
- providing stewardship of forests based on an ethic of respect for the land;
- balancing economic, productive, spiritual, ecological and recreational values of forests to meet the economic, social and cultural needs of the Province's people and communities;
- conserving the resource values identified under the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) and regulations, namely, biodiversity, cultural heritage, soil, water, fish, forage and associated plant communities, timber, recreation, resource features, visual quality and wildlife.
The Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) and regulations introduce the transition to a results-based forest practices framework in British Columbia. For more information on FRPA and its regulations, resource values, objectives, etc., see http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/code/.
Under this new approach to forest management, the forest industry is responsible for developing results and strategies, or using specified defaults, for the sustainable management of resources. The role of government is to ensure compliance with established results and strategies and other practice requirements, and evaluate the effectiveness of forest and range practices in achieving management objectives.
FREP has been put in place as a multi-agency program to evaluate whether practices under FRPA are meeting not only the intent of current FRPA objectives, but also to determine whether the practices and the legislation itself, are meeting government's broader intent for the sustainable use of resources.
The FREP ObjectiveFREP is a long-term commitment by government to:
- Assess the effectiveness of the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA) in achieving stewardship of the eleven resource values identified under FRPA;
- Identify issues regarding the implementation of forest policies, practices and legislation as they affect the resource values identified under FRPA;
- Implement continuous improvement of forest management.
This will be accomplished by:
- Evaluating the status or trends of resource and ecosystem values and determining causal factors;
- Determining whether resource values are being managed in a sustainable manner through proven or alternative forest practices;
- Recommending options for changes to forest and range policies, practices and legislation, where required.
More information about FREP and an overview of how the program is structured and how all the FREP components fit together can be found in the publication "FREP Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy", available from this site's publication library.
The FREP CycleFREP is a partnership involving Ministry of Forests and Range Forest Practices Branch, District and Regional staff, Research Branch, Resource Tenures & Engineering Branch, Field Services Division, and the Ministry of Environment. The results of Resource Stewardship Monitoring (RSM) and effectiveness evaluations will be peer reviewed and presented in extension reports to government officials, the public and other stakeholders.
The Forest and Range Practices Act is intended to maintain high environmental standards, and promote innovation and cost-effective forest resource management. It is the mandate of the Ministry of Forests and Range, Forest Practices Branch to ensure that scientifically based and peer-reviewed protocols are developed through collaborative efforts with existing scientifically based evaluation initiatives and stakeholder involvement. The intent is to determine if government-stated objectives for FRPA resource values are being achieved.
