BULKLEY VALLEY COMMUNITY RESOURCES BOARD
AGREEMENT - October 9, 1991
1.0 INTRODUCTION
It is agreed that good decisions about the use and management of the resources of the Bulkley Forest District (the District) will be reached through processes which genuinely reflect the wishes of the residents. Such decisions should reflect fully all cultural, economic, ecological and spiritual values which members of the community attach to alternative ways such resources might be managed and used, and the course of action adopted should optimize values to the community and the Province.
Processes which most fully represent the wishes of the District residents can be best achieved through the functioning of a Board composed of individuals who reflect the range of resource value perspectives of members of the affected community. Through the interaction of Board members who reflect these different value perspectives, consensus can be reached through accommodations which balance the values of the members and produce agreements which optimize values to the community as a whole, within the context of the needs of all British Columbians.
2.0 PURPOSE
The purpose of the Board is to ensure all resource activities will be ecologically responsible to guarantee long-term resource sustainability (Appendix A) and enable communities to maintain their quality of life without compromising the needs of future generations.
Implicit in the concept of long-term resource sustainability is the maintenance of the natural biological diversity (Appendix B) of the ecological system. In addition to guaranteeing long-term resource sustainability, including biological diversity, the purpose of the Board is to see plans developed which, if implemented, will provide the most benefits possible to residents of the District and Province.
3.0 MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
The activities and recommendations made by the Board will accord with the following management principles:
1. Economic, cultural, social and general well-being of people and communities should be the overriding aim of managing our natural resources.
2. All resources activities should endeavour to be ecologically responsible and to maintain biological diversity at the landscape unit level. 1
3. Development should be sustainable (Appendix A) enabling people of the community to maintain their quality of life without compromising the needs of future generations.
4. Land uses in Provincial Forests should be balanced so as to optimize net benefits to the people of the District while recognizing the needs of the people of the province as a whole.
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1 The landscape unit is defined as a land parcel for planning purposes, such as a watershed, of between 10,000 and 20,000 hectares.
5. There should be improved methods of assuring that the people who live in the District have a prominent role in deciding how the resources in the District are managed.
6. Accountability of the Board should be achieved by making available to the public all information used by the Board, and through consultation with the public at key stages of the planning process.
7. The paramount function of the resources expert is to provide reliable estimates of the physical, biological and economic consequences of alternative activities, including an assessment of the uncertainties in such estimates. Whether the consequences are desirable or undesirable is a value judgment. In a democratic society, the value judgment of the expert merits no greater weight than the judgment of the lay person.
8. Through the cooperation of the Board, the Forest Service and other provincial agencies, the preparation of the Forest Land Management Plan (the Plan) will benefit from the expert analyses provided by provincial agency personnel and the reliable application of community values in the design of the plan.
4.0 STRUCTURE
4.1 ROLE
The Board will work with the government agencies, through the Interagency Technical Team (Section 5.0 and Appendix E), to prepare the Forest Land Management Plan for the Bulkley Forest District. In this way the public preferences of the community, as reflected through the Board, can be applied to the results of the scientific and technical analyses of agency personnel to produce plans that will best serve the overall public interest of the community.
The Board will monitor the Plan as it is implemented and maintain liaison with the Ministry of Forests.
The Board will participate directly in all steps in the planning process so that the plans produced faithfully reflect the views of the Board. At key stages in the planning process, the Board will provide information to the public and consult with the public through appropriate mechanisms.
4.2 SCOPE
The initial Board will deal primarily with integrated use of forestland as it relates to the Forest Land Management Plan for the Bulkley Forest District.
4.3 AREA
For immediate practical purposes, the Board will concern itself with resources within the Bulkley Forest District (Appendix C).
4.4 DESIGNATION OF THE BOARD
4.4.1 Size of the Board, Eligibility for Board Membership and Nomination of Members.
4.4.2 Selection and Appointment of Board Members
The Committee of Facilitators (Rob Roulston, Guenter Stahl and Ivan Thompson) was selected at the Planning Process Workshop for the Bulkley Forest District on September 27-29, 1991. The Committee of Facilitators (the Facilitators) will attend to the solicitation of nominees for the initial Board and will invite all such nominees to a meeting, or such number of meetings as may be required. The nominees, assisted by the Committee of Facilitators, will develop a representative Board.
4.4.3. Perspectives/Criteria
It is intended that the Board should be composed of individuals who reflect the range of resource values perspectives of residents of the Bulkley Forest District.
It is evident that people differ in the value they attach to forestland resources and each of its various uses. For example, some may attach a great deal of value to forestland resources for wildlife habitat and are willing to forego significant timber production to protect such habitat.
Others may consider timber production of greater value than wildlife habitat benefits that would be foregone by the timber use.
For virtually all aspects and uses of forestland resources, value differences of this kind will tend to exist. At the same time, some individuals may be relatively neutral about how some forestland resources are managed and used and still others may have only a limited interest. These differences must be taken into account in the design of the democratic processes for planning the management and use of the forestland resources.
For those who have a limited interest in the way such resources are managed and used, it may not be worthwhile for a person to devote the time required to participate as a member of the Board. These individuals might prefer to be placed on a mailing list to receive the output of the Board, to attend public meetings and possibly to participate in a workshop on a specific issue.
A Board member should be willing to become well informed about the resources base of the Bulkley Forest District, its potentials, and the physical, biological, social and economic consequences of alternative patterns of resources management and use to make a well informed judgment of what plan will best serve the public interest. This will entail the study of relevant reports and participation in a dozen or more Board meetings and one or more public meetings each year.
4.4.4. Term
The minimum term of the first Board will be until the Plan for the Bulkley Forest District is completed.
4.4.5 Organization
The Board will elect a Chairman and address constitutional questions (such as frequency of meetings, what constitutes a quorum and length of term), develop terms of reference (in keeping with principles reflected herein) and a communications strategy.
4.5 PRINCIPLES OF CONSENSUS BUILDING
It is important that all Board Members be familiar with and subscribe to certain basic elements that are important in developing consensus on difficult and complex issues. The following principles will apply to the process.
1. The purpose of the negotiations is to agree.
2. The Board members agree to act in "good faith" in all aspects of the negotiations.
3. The Board members accept the concerns and goals of others as legitimate.
4. The focus will be on interests and concerns rather than on positions and demands.
5. Board members commit to fully explore issues, searching for solutions in a problem- solving atmosphere.
4.6 DECISION MAKING
1. Consensus is defined as general agreement of all members of the Board.
2. The aim is to reach consensus on recommendations relating to all issues addressed by the Board.
3. In the absence of consensus on the plan to be recommended for a planning area in the District, the options preferred by one or more members will be presented in the report of the Board. For each optional plan supported by one or more members of the Board, there will be provided in the report:
a. background professional analysis of the physical, biological, economic and social effects of implementing the options,
b. an identification and definition of the uncertainties with regard to the physical, biological, economic, and social effects of implementing the
options,
c. the reasons for supporting the option, as stated by those members supporting it,
d. the reasons for opposing the option, as stated by those opposing it.
4. There will be a single final report which encompasses both agreement and any disagreement, not majority and minority.
4.7 COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE BOARD AND THE PUBLIC
All information used by the Board and all information employed by the Provincial agencies in making technical analyses for the Board will be available to the general public. In addition, the Board will hold public meetings at key stages of the planning process, and will communicate at other times with members of the public or as deemed desirable by the Board.
The Board should consult with representatives of the native peoples in order to work out mutually acceptable procedures for involving the native people directly concerned with the resources of the District in the development of the Forest Land management Plan for the area.
5.0 FOREST LAND MANAGEMENT PLAN
The initial task of the Board, together with the Interagency Technical Team, will be to complete a detailed planning process for public review and input.
5.1 The Interagency Technical Team
The Interagency Technical Team will be coordinated by the Forestry Operations Manager, Bulkley District and will include members of appropriate government agencies. Information required by the Interagency Technical Team which cannot be provided directly by the member agencies will be obtained from outside sources.
The relationship of the Board, the Interagency Technical Team and the District Manager, Bulkley Forest District (the District Manager), is diagrammed in Appendix E.
6.0 SCHEDULES
Some components of the Forest Land Management Plan will require early action to meet the administrative requirements of the Ministry of Forests. The Board and the District Manager of the Bulkley Forest District will consult with one another on the schedule to be met in completing the various components of the plan. It will be the aim of the Board to adhere to a schedule that will meet the administrative requirements of the Ministry of Forests wherever possible.
7.0 SUPPORT AND RESOURCES FOR THE BOARD
The District Manager, in consultation with the Board, will determine levels and delivery of resources and support for the activities of the Board.
APPENDIX A: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The term "sustainable development" was first made popular by the Brundtland Commission whose report, Our Common Future, was published in 1987. It has come to mean many things for many people. The Board should agree on a definition of sustainable development. The following is offered as a starting point.
A: Premises
1. Renewable resources include not only the timber, fish, wildlife that are hunted and trapped, and the plants on which grazing animals forage, but also the soil, water, and other naturally occurring aquatic and land-based organisms.
2. To maintain the long-term sustained yield of renewable resources, human activities and use should not impair the capability of the resource base to provide a specified yield of resources products in perpetuity.
3. Biological diversity "is crucial to conserving renewable natural resource and to maintaining the long-term health of ecological systems."2 Therefore, use of a forestland area should be compatible with the maintenance of biological diversity (Appendix B).
4. For a number of reasons, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the effects of human use of renewable forest land resources, on their long-term sustained yield. Planning for the use of renewable forest land resources should take these uncertainties into account.
2 Quote by Dr. Jim Pojar, Forest Science Section, Prince Rupert Region, Ministry of Forests.
APPENDIX B: BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Biological diversity has become more prominent in natural resource planning discussions. Often it means different things to different people. The Board will require a working definition of biodiversity and to aid them in this task the following perspective of the definition of biological diversity is offered.
Definition of Biological Diversity3
Biodiversity is the variety of life in an area, which could be as small as a decaying log, or as large as the biosphere. The full range of natural variety includes the genetic diversity of populations, the number and kind of different species, the distribution and abundance of plant and animal communities and ecosystems, and the myriad way in which living things actually live and interact. Genetic diversity involves geno-typic variation within a taxon (species or genus). Species diversity is a measure of the richness of different species, both in numbers and relative abundances. Ecosystem diversity is a landscape concept. And, of course, functional diversity transcends all three of these levels of organization, and reflects the variety of processes whereby organisms interact with other and with their physical environment.
3 This definition provided by Dr. Jim Pojar, Research, Prince Rupert Forest Region, Ministry of Forests.
APPENDIX D: RESOURCE VALUE PERSPECTIVES
Subject to the provisions of Section 4.4.3, the following list of forestland perspectives is intended to guide the Nominees, assisted by the Facilitators, in the composition of the Board.
1. Applies particular value to timber production above other uses.
2. Attaches particular value to timber production by small operators.
3. Attaches particular value to the preservation of large tracts of wilderness, with limited access.
4. Favours management of forestland resources to maintain habitat of hunted animal species and aesthetic quality of hunting environment.
6. Favours management of forestland resources to maintain populations of animals subject to trapping.
7. Favours management of forestland resources so as to maintain quality of fish habitat and aesthetic quality of fishing environment.
8. Attaches particular significance to a subsistence lifestyle and spiritual values.
9. Favours maintaining features of forestland resources which attract tourists.
10. Favours maintaining water quality for agriculture as well as access to and quality of grazing on forestland.
11. Favours management to enhance recreation access and recreation facilities with minimum activity restrictions.
12. Desires to preserve access to forestlands for prospecting and mineral development.
13. Dependent on commercial uses of forestland and perceives such uses as essential to secondary commercial activity.
14. Supports application of advanced technology to management and uses of resources in order to improve upon nature.
15. Favours preservation of aesthetic features of forestlands including landscapes and localized natural attributes.
16. Favours preservation of historical and cultural features of forestlands.
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