2016 ANNUAL REPORT
FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL® CANADA
BOARD OF DIRECTORS w
hat exciting times we live in the world of FSC! This year, the FSC Canada Board turned its attention to building FSC into a new kind of organization, one that can meet the challenge of long-term stability and sustainability by focusing on developing a strong strategic plan for 2017-2021. FSC Canada brings a unique value proposition as a convenor for solutions-oriented dialogue amongst social, environmental, Aboriginal and business organizations. Tackling challenging and complex issues such as recognition of Aboriginal rights, the integration of conservation benefits and economic opportunity while creating space for a wide diversity of voices is found in the passion of those who participate in FSC activity.
Having taken over the reins as board chair in November, I’ve been able to see how this unique value has been key in the development of our national forest management standard. With the upcoming completion of the national forest management standard in the horizon, we have to stop to thank the countless volunteers who have spent their time helping to provide their expertise and opinions on a standard that will not only be workable but will help ensure our forests continue to meet the social, ecological and economic needs of present and future generations. I look forward to all expressions of interest from the growing membership in working to contribute to the unprecedented growth and future successes of FSC in Canada. Together we will grow the system in Canada and be the leaders we are. - Andrew Tremblay, Board Chairman
PRESIDENT
L
ooking back, 2016 proved to be a year of setting a clear path for development of FSC from now to 2020. On a global scale, FSC has been focused on developing its strategic plan and transforming FSC through the implementation process. This advancement is linked with FSC Canada’s own strategic plan development, which focuses on continuing to build FSC as a catalyst for change in the world of responsible forest management. We realize, in order to move FSC in this direction, we need our new national forest management standard. This past year, there’s been a clear focus to move our national forest management standard forward, particularly on key parts of the standard including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), Indigenous Cultural Landscapes, Intact Forest Landscapes and Species at Risk.
Following the publication of the first draft at the end of 2015, we have put forward considerable effort into listening to our members, certificate holders and stakeholders to carefully prepare a second draft that was issued in November 2016, which paved the way for field testing planned for the first half of 2017. We will see FSC’s developments move even further this year when Canada hosts the next FSC General Assembly which will be held in October 9-13, 2017 in Vancouver, BC. The 2017 General Assembly will be the first to be held in North America during the 24 years of the existence of FSC. Its timing will culminate with the implementation of the new strategic plan and FSC Canada’s new forest management standard. Over the coming years FSC will continue to work hard to add value to forests and businesses that share our vision, and to build awareness and support with end consumers. - Francois Dufresne, President
FSC CERTIFICATION 54.6 million 196.2 million
hectares of FSC-certified forests in Canada
2.3
million hectares more than last year
16%
of Canada’s forests are FSC certified
ALPAC has the largest FSC-certified forest in the world at
5.9 million hectares
734
chain of custody certificates in Canada
hectares of FSC-certified forests worldwide
6/10
of the largest global FSC-certified forests are in Canada
Abitibi-River has the second largest FSCcertified forest in the world at
3.5 million hectares
31,599
chain of custody certificates worldwide
1.3 million
hectares BRITISH COLUMBIA
5.9 million hectares ALBERTA
1.8 million
hectares SASKATCHEWAN
16 million hectares ONTARIO
24 million hectares QUEBEC
2.5 million hectares MARITIMES
THE FOREST OUR HOME OUR CULTURE OUR LIFE In connection with the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, FSC Canada released ‘The Forest: Our Home, Our Culture, Our Life’ a video on how Aboriginal Peoples and the Forest Stewardship Council are creating places for dialog to help keep our forests for all forever. View the video on FSC Canada’s YouTube channel.
Photo: Arturo Escobar
Photo: Morton Bo Johansson
STANDARDS FOREST MANAGEMENT STANDARD REVISION It’s been a milestone year for the development of FSC Canada’s National Forest Management Standard. It began with the release of draft 1 of the standard for public consultation from December 1, 2015 to February 2, 2016. Parallel to the first consultation, FSC Canada also released a draft Discussion Paper summarizing concepts and challenges related to Intact Forest Landscapes and Indigenous Cultural Landscapes for public consultation. We received 65 submissions, providing over 500 pages of comments and feedback on the first draft. We greatly appreciated the time and effort taken by stakeholders to assist in this process. Later in 2016, FSC participated in the National Aboriginal Forestry Associations national forum on “Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and Indigenous Forests: Landscapes, Certification and Nationhood” in Ottawa, Ontario. FSC attended to hear directly from First Nations and to review and discuss how to adapt FPIC Indigenous Cultural Landscapes into its forest management standard and FPIC guidance document. To round up these great milestones, FSC Canada published a second draft of the standard from NovemberDecember 2016, including the release of an Intact Forest Landscapes technical working document; Indigenous Cultural Landscapes discussion paper and a Free, Prior and Informed Consent guidance document. To assist with the review of the draft, FSC Canada created a set of tools and resources such as a draft 2 summary report, the ‘FSC Forest Talk’ information video series and a set of fact sheets to help stakeholders walk through the proposed changes. The standard will be field-tested in spring 2017 and the results, along with stakeholder feedback on the drafts, will be used to help the standard development group put together a final version of the standard before submitting to FSC International for approval.
CLARIFYING WHAT IT MEANS TO “OBTAIN” AGREEMENT WITH INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES? In October 2016, FSC Canada issued an interpretation of Indicator 3.1.2 in the National Boreal Standard, regarding obtaining agreement with affected Indigenous communities. The interpretation provides guidance on potential ways to verify that the applicant is reaching agreement in circumstances where no formal agreement has been reached, in the spirit of establishing a long term relationship, based on trust and a continuous improvement approach.
NATIONAL CONTROLLED WOOD RISK ASSESSMENT In February 2016, FSC International approved FSC Canada’s National Risk Assessment (NRA) proposal and work has since commenced. FSC Canada’s NRA working group will utilize and build upon FSC’s Centralized National Risk Assessment (CNRA) for Canada.
LEAVES LOGS AND LIFE SKILLS C
an there be a place more fitting to learn about forests than and educational centre inside of an FSC certified forest? Opened in October 2015, the Bill Fisch Forest Stewardship and Education Centre, located in the town of WhitchurchStouffville, Ontario, became one of the few educational facilities to be built entirely out of FSC-certified wood and located inside of an FSC-certified forest. “We have a deep history with the FSC. It was the obvious choice to use FSC certified wood since we are FSC certified. The purpose of the building is to continue the legacy of stewardship and responsible forest management” says Ian Buchanan, Manager of Natural Heritage and Forestry, The Regional Municipality of York.
In the late 1800s the forest was cleared for agriculture. After significant soil erosion in the early 1900s, efforts began to restore what was lost and thus established The York Regional Forest. It was in the year 2000 that they solidified their commitment to responsible forest management by becoming Canada’s first public forest to become FSC certified. The newly built Forest Stewardship and Education centre replaces a centre that had been there since the 1940s. The new structure uses FSC certified, black spruce glulam and cross-laminated timber (CLT) and is currently pursuing LEED silver status. Even though the forest itself is a natural classroom, the Bill Fisch Stewardship and Education Centre will help to further educate visitors on the importance of natural resources and inspire the next generation to be stewards of our forests.
ANOTHER BIG YEAR A SUCCESSFUL FSC FRIDAY On Friday September 30th, 2016, FSC Canada and hundreds of different organizations around the world celebrated FSC Friday, an annual event designed to raise awareness of FSC and responsible forest management. FSC Canada developed a section on the FSC Canada website with Ideas on how to celebrate FSC Friday and a social media toolkit with assets that could be downloaded and shared on a company or individual’s Twitter or Facebook pages. FSC Canada also hosted a cocktail event with sustainability professionals in the Toronto area to hear stories directly from the forest and to thank them for their continued support of FSC. While guests mingled, they were greeted by visual stories of FSC-certified forests and were then provided by first hand accounts from the forest by Tembec and Domtar. We would like to thank Domtar for sponsoring the event and for helping to make the event a success. Last but not least, we took FSC Friday to elementary schools by holding a FSC-certified pencil giveaway. Congratulations to Ms. Vick’s grade 2/3 class at St. Michael’s School, Ms. Howse’s grade 5 class at McAdam Elementary School and Ms. Federico’s JK/SK class at Janet Lee Elementary School. We would like to extend a big thank you to those that took part in FSC Friday and look forward to celebrating again next year.
CREATING CONSUMER AWARENESS AT THE GREEN LIVING SHOW FSC Canada exhibited at the Green Living Show, Canada’s largest consumer show dedicated to all things green, from April 15-17, 2016, attracting over 30,000 consumers that are interested in green products and services. Visitors to the FSC Canada booth were greeted with a variety of FSC-certified products and educational materials, helping consumers better understand what FSC means and showcasing how consumers can find the FSC label on household items.
CINEPLEX ANNOUNCED ITS LATEST COMMITMENT TO USING FSC CERTIFIED PAPER In February 2016, Cineplex moved the text pages of Cineplex Magazine and Le Magazine Cineplex to 100 per cent FSC recycled paper (with 85 per cent post-consumer content). Cineplex’s purchasing policy aims to maximize recycled and FSC certified paper with the objective of not consuming paper originating from engendered forests. Cineplex’s popcorn bags are already made from FSCcertified paper and their small, medium and large drink cups are currently made with FSC certified fibre. For each issue of the magazines, Cineplex prints 750,000 copies of the English magazine and 200,000 copies of the French magazine. The publications are distributed in Cineplex’s 162 theaters across Canada, and also in The Globe and Mail and Le Journal de Montreal.
FSC Friday Cocktail Event
2016 Green Living Show
FSC Friday Back to School Giveaway
Photo: Eden Canada
CREATING AWARENESS EDUCATING THE FUTURE GENERATION In partnership with Eden Canada, FSC Canada participated in an education initiative in Saint-Jean-surRichelieu, Quebec in April and May 2016. Launched on Earth Day, Eden and FSC distributed 450 saplings to children of three elementary schools.
The children were tasked with caring for their saplings for one month while learning about the environment and different ways to protect the planet. On May 17th, 2016, they planted their saplings in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu creating a new urban forest in the area.
FINANCIALS FY 2016
FY 2015 $9,433
$10,623 $131,456
$246,673
$78,231 $396,433
$423,582
$61,559
$624,355
$826,928
$1,338,453 total income
Membership Fees
FSC Grants
$1,470,820 total income
Foundation & Corporate Grants
Other Income
$1,319,442
$1,482,286
$19,011
($11,466)
expenses
net income
expenses
net income
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
STAFF
ABORIGINAL CHAMBER
FRANCOIS DUFRESNE
Brenda St-Denis, Wolf Lake First Nation Colin Richardson, Council of the Haida Nation
MONIKA PATEL
ECONOMIC CHAMBER Andrew Tremblay, Domtar Elston Dzus, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBER Pier-Olivier Boudreault, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (SNAP QC) Julee Boan, Ontario Nature
SOCIAL CHAMBER Arnold Bercov, Public and Private Woodworkers of Canada Renaud Gangé, Unifor
President
Director of Programs and Communications
VIVIAN PEACHEY
Director of Standards
ELAINE MARCHAND
Manager, Eastern Canada
ORRIN QUINN
Manager Western Canada
JOSHUA ZANGWILL
Business Development Manager
BRYCE DENTON Financial Manager
PAMELA PERREAULT
Coordinator of Aboriginal Initiatives
VOLUNTEERS Brian Callaghan , Bureau Veritas Certification Chris Ridley-Thomas, KPMG Performance Registrar Inc Chris McDonell, Tembec Chris Stagg, Canfor Christine Korol, Rainforest Alliance Cindy Pearce Cliff Wallis, Alberta Wilderness Association Conrad Yarmoloy, ALPAC Dave Pearce, Wildlands League Dave Puttock, SilvEcon Dr. Harry Nelson, University of British Columbia Dr. Sandy Smith , University of Toronto Dr. Thom Erdle, University of New Brunswick Elston Dzus, ALPAC Erik Leslie, Harrop-Procter Community Co-operative Geneviève Labrecque, Tembec Guy Tremblay, Resolute Forest Products John Caluori, Unifor Justina Ray ,Conservation Society Canada Tom Clark Will Martin, Rising Forest Management Consulting
Kari Easthouse, NSLFFPA Kari Stuart-Smith, Canfor Kevin Gillis, Mistik Management Louis Imbeau, Université du Québec Matt Brunette Michel Mongeon, First Nations in Quebec Olivier Côté, Syndicat des producteurs forestiers du Sud du Québec Patrick Garneau, Tembec Peggy Smith , Lakehead University Robert Booth, Domtar Russell Diabo, Wolf Lake First Nation Sandra Cardinal, ALPAC Sara Teitelbaum , Université de Montréal Scott Davis, Eastern Ontario Model Forest Simon Mitchell, Woodland Steward Solange Nadeau, Natural Resources Canada Steve Morel, Mashteuiatsh’s Environment Depart
2016 ANNUAL REPORT