University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry is pleased to announce that a promising step toward a bright future for British Columbia’s forests has been achieved.
With the monumental challenges facing BC’s broad forest sector today, the foundations of a shared vision generated at the recently held Forests Summit 2020 at UBC have the potential to pave the way for a single, comprehensive and long term plan for our forests. The summit’s discussion centred around the necessity of a holistic approach anchored on the many values of our forests, First Nations knowledge, and the role that the broad forest sector can play in mitigating the effects of climate change.
Forests Summit 2020 was unique from similar discussions and fora previously held in that it brought together numerous, highly diverse and influential voices from all parts of BC in one room for one highly engaged day that focused on building on strengths and commonalities. Further, the Faculty of Forestry provided a neutral, third-party forum with a carefully designed and closely facilitated agenda to ensure the summit’s success.
Roughly 80 participants representing voices from communities, government including First Nations, industry, environmental groups, academia, and unions gathered for Forests Summit 2020. Dr David Brand, UBC Alumnus, and CEO of Australian company, New Forests, opened the summit with a compelling talk that offered valuable insight into the transformative forces on the world’s forestry sector and potential implications for the future of BC. The day-long workshop that followed utilized groundbreaking methods in facilitation to crystallize the perspectives of the group into the elements of the vision.
Dr John Innes, Dean of the Faculty, concluded the summit by remarking on the key importance of next steps if BC’s broad forest sector is to address the effects of climate change and economic and social pressures in the next 50 years successfully.
