Privateering in the public forest? : a study of the forest industry's expanding role in the management of British Columbia's forest lands
Date
1987
Authors
Wagner, William Leroy
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The beginnings of a new timber supply strategy emerged with the proclamation of two provincial acts in 1979. The objectives of the strategy emphasized in the Forest Act and the Ministry of Forests Act were that exploitation of the public forest resource would occur in such a manner that the economic values associated with the new philosophy of timber management were realized by society as a whole, Yet despite the increased public insistence on economic forest management embodied in the legislation, the Ministry's timber tenure system largely remained in arrangements that were created during the pre-management era. Indeed, the Forest Act was amended in 1982 to permit the replacement of Forest Licences that were established by the 1979 legislation, with Tree Farm Licences, a tenure arrangement resulting from the Sloan Inquiries in the 1940's and 1950's. If the new Tree Farm Licences are to be allocated by political rather than market forces , the agency conferring public property rights to private companies ought to have a good notion of the values associated with those rights.
In this thesis, a method is described to value public timber and land assets in British Columbia. Further, a system is demonstrated that assesses potential impacts of timber tenure change on the objectives of the Ministry of Forests .
As of June 1, 1987 , t he top four corporate groups in the province's forest industry owned 93.2 percent of the annual allocated quota and 84. 1 percent of the total annual provincial cut. Further, of the approximately $367 . 1 million in land assets associated with the replacement licences, $262 . 5 million or 71 percent, would be distributed to the top three major corporate groups . These groups presently own $656 , 8 million or 95 percent of the public land assets in Tree Farm Licences . Of the remaining, 63.2 percent of the allocated value and 49.2 percent of the replacement values would be allocated to the top four major independent companies. Since the concentration of public assets suggests a relationship between corporate power and the present timber tenures , alter natives are discussed.