(2010) State of the Forests report

Report produced by the ministry of forests

This document is the sustainable forest management report for British Columbia (B.C.). Sustainable forest management (SFM) is concerned with maintaining the long-term health of forest ecosystems while providing environmental, economic, and social opportunities for present and future generations.1 Through national and international agreements, the set of topics and statistics (called indicators) to include in an SFM report have been identified.2 Jurisdictions around the world monitor, assess, and report on SFM in conformance with these agreements. The content of The State of British Columbia′s Forests was guided by these agreements and is consistent with State of the Forest reports from major forest jurisdictions around the world.3

The purpose of this report is two-fold:

• to provide information on the condition of British Columbia′s forest and range resources, and the environmental, social, and economic values associated with these resources; and

• to provide an assessment of that information.

In this report, detailed information and assessments are provided for 91 indicators, grouped into 24 topic areas. In the section below, key findings are summarized by eight central themes for SFM reporting that are widely used around the world. The majority of the data in this summary and throughout the report is current to 2008. In a few cases, data from 2009 is presented, and in other cases, only older data is available.

2010 State of the Forests report optimized.pdf