***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
BIODIVERSITY/FOREST CAMPAIGN NEWS
British
Columbia, Canada--Tree Farm License Renewal in Secret
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
January
25, 1995
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
The
Sierra Club Victoria Group posted the following information
concerning
renegotiation of leases on 4.5 million hectares in
British
Columbia in the list.consbio (Conservation Biology List)
in
econet. For further information on
EcoNet membership, a
nonprofit
online system, send any message to <econet-
info@igc.apc.org>.
*******************************
/**
list.consbio: 128.0 **/
**
Topic: Multinational TFL Negotiations in B **
**
Written 3:00 AM Jan 21, 1995 by jwight@islandnet.com in
cdp:list.consbio
**
Subject:
Multinational TFL Negotiations in B.C. Canada
**********************
Sierra
Club Victoria Group
502 Craigflower
Rd., Victoria, B.C., V9A 2V8
(ph.
604 384-2468, fax 385-0068)
email:
jwight@islandnet.com
ISSUE
ADVISORY
January
17, 1995.
**********************
Multinational
TFL Negotiations - Clayoquot Sound
Secret
Deals Against Public Interest
The
Sierra Club Victoria Group (SCVG) calls upon concerned
individuals
and groups to contact the Honourable Andrew Petter,
Minister
of Forests of British Columbia to register their
opposition
to the "replacement" of 18 Twenty-five year Tree Farm
Licences
(TFL's) comprising more than 4.5 million hectares. These
negotiations
are currently being conducted without informing and
consulting
with the public. (Honourable Andrew
Petter: Tel: 604-
387-1040
or Fax: 604-387-3200)
One of
the licences currently being negotiated is MacMillan
Bloedel's
TFL 44, where over 800 citizens were arrested for
protesting
B.C.'s forest policy in Clayoquot Sound in 1992. Also
included
are some of the largest forest tenures in the province,
including
the largest, West Fraser Mill TFL 41 (Kitimat area).
These
TFL negotiations are occurring at the same time that the
Minister
of Forests is telling the public that the NDP government
will be
dealing with tenure reform during their next mandate. If
the
government is sincere in its commitment to reform the tenure
system
in their second mandate, then why is the government
presently
foreclosing on this commitment by entering into twenty-
five
year tree farm licences with these forest companies?
To
cancel these agreements, because of tenure reform, the
government
will likely be required to pay unfeasible compensation.
These
negotiations are occurring without public involvement. If
the TFL
"replacement" negotiations
proceed, the major decisions
on
tenure will have already been made. The
Ministry of Forests
claims
that these negotiations are almost routine; yet these
"routine
negotiations" are determining future use of public land
in
British Columbia, and perpetuating the system that has widely
criticized.
The Honourable Petter claims that his Ministry will
reveal
the nature of the negotiations to the public only after the
TFL
Agreements have been signed.
Section
29 of the Forest Act of British Columbia, requires that
the
Government "shall publish in a prescribed manner" notices of
tree
farm licence replacement. The Sierra
Club believes that the
intent
of this statement is to ensure that the public is notified.
Notice
of these negotiations has been sparsely
published; notice
has not
appeared in the major papers in the large populated urban
centres. There has been no attempt to advise the
public of B.C.;
there
has been no press release from the Ministry of Forestry. It
appears
that the government is preventing the public from
exercising
its right to know about the future of crown land under
the
public trust.
The
SCVG has strongly urged the Honorable Andrew Petter not to
proceed
with the replacement of these TFL's until there has been a
compete
public review of the practice of granting tenure.
For
further information contact or David
White 385-0195 or Mehdi
Najari
658-0457 or email above address
Tree
Farm Licences are 25 year agreements which give companies
wide
powers to manage public lands in B.C., Canada.
From the
beginning,
the TFL system has been at the heart of the contentious
forest
debate which has carved up the map of B.C
into small
fiefdoms
with an ever-diminishing return to the public.
Indeed,
the
first TFL, granted in 1956, resulted in the arrest of the only
Minister
of the Crown (Bob Sommers) to be ever convicted in the
British
Commonwealth. The renewal of these
licences will further
concentrate
control of vast areas of public land into the hands of
fewer
multinational corporations. This will
reduce future options
for
alternative forest management policies such as community or
aboriginal
management.
The
TFL's were originally created as a massive give away to their
corporate
supporters. Since then the TFL system has resulted in an
even
greater concentration of control in the hands of foreign
multinationals
Andrew
Petter has claimed that the issue of tenure would not be
raised
during the first term of this government.
The
public has a right to be apart of this discussion.
The
Ministry of Forests claims that these negotiations are
routine. They claim that, while the agreements are
for a twenty-
five
year period, under the new government the procedure is to
renegotiate
every five years. Environmental groups are concerned
about
this policy because of its arbitrariness.
There is nothing
to
prevent a future government from reverting to the old policy,
and
there is never anything routine about a TFL agreement.
Tree
Farm Licence Replacements
Here is
the list of the nineteen TFL's that are being secretly
negotiated
between the multinationals and the NDP
Government.
These
deals will be announced in the next two or three weeks.
Tenure
is arguably the most important issue in the forests. The
NDP is
the same government which promises to "reform" tenure if
they
are ever re-elected - but the major decisions will have
obviously
been already made if these deals are signed.
This is
one of the most important business decisions made in the
past
few years, yet is completely ignored by the mainstream media.
Don't let it happen. RAISE A FUSS.
TFL
5 -
(Cariboo)
TFL
6 -
(North Island)
TFL
8. -
(Boundary - Grand Forks)
- Pope and Talbot
TFL
10 -
(Campbell River)
TFL
13 - (East Kootenay)
TFL
14 - (East Kootenay)
TFL
15 - (Okanagon)
-Weyerhaeuser
TFL
23 - (Slocan-Arrow Lakes)
-Westar Timber
TFL
30 - (Prince George)
-Northwood Pulp and Paper
TFL
33 - (Salmon Arm)
-Federated Coop
TFL
35 - (Kamloops-N. Thompson)
-Weyerhaeuser
TFL
37 -
North Island
-CFP
TFL
39 -
(North Island - Charlottes)
-MB
TFL
41 -
(Mainland Coast)
-
TFL
43 -
(North Island)
-Scott Paper
TFL
44 -
(West Coast Island)-MB
TFL
47 -
(North Island, Charlottes)
-Crown Forest Product
TFL
55 -
( Revelstoke - Sicamous)
TFL
56 -
( Revelstoke - Sicamous)
*******************************************
URL at
http://www.islandnet.com/~jwight/enviro......Check us out!
*******************************************
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
You are
encouraged to utilize this information for personal
campaign
use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns and
forwarding. All efforts are made to provide accurate,
timely
pieces;
though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information
rests with the reader. Check out our
Gaia Forest
Conservation
Archives at URL=
http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html
Networked
by:
Ecological
Enterprises
Email
(best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org
Phone->(608)
233-2194 || Fax->(608) 231-2312