Implementing biodiversity conservation through the British Columbia Forest Practices Code

Abstract The Canadian province of British Columbia supports a diverse biota, including a significant proportion of the planet's temperate forests and the majority of coastal temperate forests of western North America. The majority (81%) of land is under provincial jurisdiction and classified as crown provincial land. Productive forest land contributing to the allowable annual forest cut represents 45% of the provincial land base or 43.3 million hectares. Public awareness of biological diversity and understanding of the need for conservation has greatly increased in recent years and has led to the creation of a policy to double the amount of protected area in the province from 6% to 12% of the land base by the year 2000. This paper describes the Forest Practices Code which came into effect on June 15 1995 and is intended to help promote the conservation of biological diversity within the province. The development and effective implementation of the Code is significant and of wide interest to forest and land managers because it applies to all crown lands outside of protected areas. Biodiversity conservation is addressed in the Code by way of landscape and forest stand level planning. Landscape level planning begins with the establishment of a landscape unit. These units are based on ecological boundaries, watersheds or groups of watersheds rather than administrative boundaries and may encompass public and private land. They range in area from around 5000 to 100 000 hectares in which the future desired forest conditions can be spatially planned. There are three guidebooks that are intended to be used together to provide a coordinated strategy for the conservation of biological diversity under the Code: the Riparian Management Guidebook (British Columbia Forest Service and British Columbia Environment, 1995c), the Managing Identified Wildlife Guidebook (British Columbia Forest Service and British Columbia Environment, 1995d) and the Biodiversity Guidebook (British Columbia Forest Service and British Columbia Environment, 1995b). The Biodiversity Guidebook provides a ‘coarse filter’ for retention of habitat diversity. The riparian management reserves and management zones provide protection to the large number of species associated with those restricted, but biologically diverse and productive, habitats. There are also provisions in the Code for managing habitats for single species, subspecies, and ecosystems known to be threatened, endangered or regionally important. The Forest Practices Code truly signals a major change in forest management within British Columbia. The retention of old growth forest and mature forests for biodiversity is a new practice. The science behind the recommendations in the biodiversity guidelines must be monitored to evaluate whether forest practices are effective at meeting their conservation objectives.