“Timid” start to forest tenure overhaul, says Northern group

The Northern Ontario Sustainable Communities Partnership (NOSCP) calls the passage of new provincial forestry legislation a “timid beginning” in moving toward community-based forestry.

In a May 19 release, the group says the Forest Tenure Modernization Act provides some useful tools, but does not provide communities with decision-making authority over the use of their local forests.

NOSCP is a pan-Northern citizens group of academics, municipalities, Aboriginal groups and non-governmental organizations that has been lobbying for the concept of local decision-making through a community-based forestry model.

The group says the legislation also fails to acknowledge and provide for Aboriginal and treaty rights, a key component, they say, to improve the situation in First Nation communities.

The government plans to field test two models – the Enhanced Shareholder Sustainable Forest Licences and Local Forest Management Corporations – over a five-year period to see which one works best.

In a statement, NOSCP says diversity, creativity and innovation is needed in the tenure system. The group says these “minor changes” in the tenure system “will hardly affect the status quo.”