The British Columbia case study is intended to provide an example where consideration of an ILM approach to planning is prompted by an external shock to an existing, well-developed policy regime. In the BC case, driver is the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) infestation in BC’s southern interior forests.

In the development of this case study, our principal partner has been the BC Forest Practices Board. The Board notes that, in the course of conducting its audits and investigations into compliance with BC forest practices regime, it has encountered a number of issues with the process of setting objectives under the existing regional and landscape level planning framework. These issues raise doubts about whether licensees’ performance can be realistically assessed against their management objectives – a serious problem in an “objective-driven” regulatory regime. The Board believes that the severity of the problem will be compounded by the MPB infestation, which creates further difficulties in setting realistic long term objectives against which licensees’ performance can be measured. An ILM approach may provide a solution.

In the first year of the project, the team will explore the possibility of extending our partnerships beyond the FPB to include First Nations with traditional lands in the Cariboo Chilcotin land use planning area and to other agencies in the BC government that are engaged in ILM. When the partnerships and collaborations are in place, the team will also be able to develop a KETE program for this part of the project. In the second year, the team will be on the ground using material provided by the FPB to assess the severity of the problem of matching performance to objectives and the benefits of an ILM approach.

The BC team will be led by Dr Darcy Mitchell, Director of the Centre for Non Timber Forest Products at Royal Roads University, supported by Professor Chris Tollefson of the University of Victoria and students from the Law Faculty.