Ministry of

	2002/03 Annual Service Plan Report Forest Practices Board

Year-at-a-Glance Highlights

This is a report on the Board's first service plan, covering Board activities during the fiscal year 2002/03. For the most part, the Board met, if not exceeded, its delivery targets. Most notably:

• As planned, the Board conducted seven audits: five area-based audits, and two full-scope compliance audits (including the second annual audit on Nisga'a lands). One of the compliance audits was able to place reliance on the work of certifying auditors, resulting in a more efficient, cost-effective audit. The Board was only able to publish three of the possible seven audit reports (43%) during the fiscal year. Two more were published in May 2003. The remaining two will be released shortly.
• In the conduct of its investigations, the Board exceeded its target on timeliness, completing 80% of its complaint investigations within six months, compared to the eight months targeted. Alternative dispute resolution techniques proved beneficial in 20% of our investigations. Our target in this objective was 25%.
• The Board doubled-up its publication of results-oriented and area-based reports on topics of public concern. Six reports were published during 2002/03, covering issues such as cattle grazing near riparian areas, marbled murrelet habitat management, and the use of water quality objectives under forest practices legislation.