Appendix

Glossary

Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) — The rate of timber harvest permitted each year from a specified area of land, usually expressed as cubic metres of wood per year.

Certification — The process of identifying forest products as those produced by organizations whose forest practices or management systems meet a set of defined voluntary certification standards, based upon independent assessments. Certification is intended to assure companies and consumers around the world that the forest products they purchase come from well-managed forests.

Criteria and Indicators — A criterion is a category of conditions or processes by which sustainable forest management may be assessed. An indicator is a measure of an aspect of the criterion. Those used in Canada are generally based on the Montreal Process initiated in 1994. This was an international meeting where criteria and indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests were developed and agreed to internationally.

Defined Forest Area Management — Changing the volume-based forest management regime prevalent throughout much of the province, to defined forest areas, managed with key attributes of area-based tenures (e.g., Tree Farm Licences).

Discretionary Silviculture Activities — Silviculture activities that are not required by legislation. These may include backlog reforestation (areas harvested prior to 1987), reforestation activities on some areas burned by wildfire, and brushing, spacing, fertilizing and pruning.

Forest and Range Assets — All the forest and range resources on Crown land, including the water, soil, biodiversity, timber, forage, wildlife habitat, recreation, and scenic resources.

Forest Encroachment — Refers to the intrusion or establishment of a significant number of trees on grassland(s).

Forest Ingrowth — Refers to the process whereby previously open forest becomes more dense, and treed grasslands become more densely covered with young trees.

Forest Stand Management Fund — This account was originally established as a fund by the Forest Stand Management Fund Act, 1986, and was changed to a Special Account under the Special Accounts Appropriation and Control Act in 1988. Revenue is provided by contributions from municipalities, the forest industry, forest sector unions, and others through money collected in accordance with legislation; penalties levied in accordance with legislation; and from stumpage levies. Expenses provide for enhanced management of British Columbia's forest and rangelands, for silviculture work and costs related to environmental remediation, for the costs of investigating contravention of legislation, for fire suppression costs related to contraventions of legislation where a penalty has been levied in respect of the contravention, and for reforestation and road deactivation in areas subject to stumpage levies. No financing transactions are provided for under this account.

Key Outcomes and Indicators — Key outcome indicators, represent key results related to an organization's goals, but that are often not directly attributable to their business activities. Logic models are used to link outcomes to business activities. Because they measure societal, land base or stakeholder results or changes in conditions or behaviours, the accountability for these key outcomes and indicators cannot be solely attributed to the Ministry of Forests.

• Sustainable Forest Land Base — This key outcome pertains to the area in provincial forest land which reflects provincial land use decisions. Changes to the indicator "Area of provincial forestland" (in millions of hectares) would be expected if the government removed Crown land from forest management for other uses (e.g., preservation, parks or agriculture, or Crown land sales) or converted land from other uses to forest management. For the purposes of this measure, provincial forest land is the Crown land in timber supply areas, woodlot licences and tree farm licences. Data is from the Ministry of Forests Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) database, as at January 1st each year. This measure was 47.8 million hectares at January 1, 2003 and reduced to 47.7 million hectares in 2004. The small reduction in the productive forest area reflects updated inventory information (e.g., what is defined as productive) and minor changes to land use and administration (primarily related to protected areas and treaties over the past five years).
• Sustainable Timber Productivity — The ministry uses measures of reforestation and losses from fire to represent sustainable timber productivity. These measures use data from the past five years. Reforestation, represented by the "Ratio of area reforested to area harvested or lost to fire and pest", includes planting or natural regeneration and is net of plantation failures. Harvesting is by any method. Losses to fire and pest are unsalvageable. A ratio of 1.0 indicates that areas being reforested are in balance with those being harvested or lost to fire and pests. A ratio of less than 1.0 reflects a trend towards increased Not Sufficiently Restocked (NSR) with more area being harvested or lost to fire and pest than reforested.The 2002/03 baseline for this measure was 0.93. Losses from fire are represented by "The total area lost to wildfire annually." This is highly dependent on weather and where fires occur relative to resources and communities. The five-year rolling average in 2002/03 was 20,471 hectares. The exceptionally severe 2003 fire season, and the extreme drought of 2004 will impact the five-year rolling average of area lost for the next five years. Projections of losses have been increased to reflect 2004/05 conditions and the potential for drought to continue in 2005/06.
• Healthy Forests — Healthy forest ecosystems sustain the quality and quantity of soil, water and timber, and therefore, indicate sustainable forest resources. The indicator "Per cent of annual harvest area with soil loss due to establishment of permanent access roads" is linked to national forest criteria and indicators of global forest sustainability. Although the indicator represents a key element of healthy ecosystems (soil sustainability), it is only meaningful at the ecosystem level, needs to be considered over time, and cannot be taken by itself as a sufficient indicator of sustainability. The ministry will present more comprehensive information in a "State of the Forests" report published periodically. Permanent access roads include any un-rehabilitated roads, excavated or bladed trails, landings, pits or quarries. Harvest area is by any method and includes areas with retained mature timber and naturally occurring non-productive areas within the cut block boundary.
• Effective Forest and Range Protection and Management — "Per cent of forest and range operators' compliance with statutory requirements that regulate forest practices" reflects management decisions and actions of forest and range operators which are key to the outcome of sustainable forest resources. Information is from the ministry's Compliance Information Management System. The rate of compliance has consistently been in excess of 90 per cent for the past eight years.
• Revenue to the Crown — This key outcome is supported by two indicators, "Crown forest gross revenue ($ billions)" and "Crown gross revenue from BC Timber Sales ($ millions)". Crown forest gross revenue is the total amount of money charged by the ministry during the fiscal year, which includes BC Timber Sales, Timber Tenures and other MoF revenues.
• Diversification of B.C. Export Markets — The provincial forest sector is highly dependent upon exports. The health and diversity of export markets are good indicators of the strength of the forest economy. "B.C.'s share of the US softwood lumber market" indicates the status of B.C.'s biggest export market. "B.C.'s share of Japan softwood lumber imports" tracks British Columbia's second largest softwood lumber customer. Import volumes are published annually by the Japan Wood Products Information and Research Centre. The base in 2002/03 was 43 per cent (calendar year). The "Increase in wood product sales to Taiwan, China and Korea" indicates expansion into new markets for B.C. wood products. These areas are targeted by Forestry Innovation Investment.
• Globally Competitive Forest Sector — This key outcome is measured by the "Percentage increase in forestland certified by major forest certification processes." Major forest certification processes are the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is excluded, because it does not pertain explicitly to forest management. The baseline for this measure is the 7.7 million hectares that were certified in 2001/02. In 2002/03, the number of hectares certified increased by 126 per cent to 17.4 million hectares.
• Public trust in the B.C. Forest Service — Public trust is measured in a telephone survey conducted by B.C. Stats every two years. The baseline for the trust indicator was 60 per cent in 2002/03. The new effectiveness indicator is based on five variables (forest fire protection, control of pests and disease, reforestation, environmental protection, and regulating forest companies) that were combined for the single measure of overall effectiveness, which was measured as 73 per cent in the 2002/03 survey.
• Effective Administration of the Forest Investment Account (FIA) — This key outcome is measured by "The achievement of performance targets by the third-party administrators." The percentage is based on the number of performance targets developed by FI third party administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Federation of BC Woodlot Associations, and Forestry Innovation Investment that are achieved within 85 per cent.

Provincial Forest Land-base — Crown land designated by the Forest Act (section 5) as under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forests. This is generally equivalent to the Crown land area in TFL's, Woodlot Licences, and TSA's (excluding vacant Crown land).

Provincial Forest Resources — Means the resource elements of water, soil, air, and biodiversity (genetic, species and ecosystem) and the resource values associated with provincial forests including, without limitation, timber, forage, wildlife, fish, botanical forest products, cultural heritage resources, visual quality, resource features, and recreation resources.

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) — SFM, as defined by the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers is: "To maintain and enhance the long-term health of our forest ecosystems, for the benefit of all living things both nationally and globally, while providing for environmental, economic, social and cultural opportunities for the benefit of present and future generations."

Timber Supply Area (TSA) — Land designated under the Forest Act that is managed for sustainable timber harvest, as determined by an allowable annual cut. There are currently 37 TSA's in British Columbia.