Comparing forest management practices under community-based and conventional tenures in British Columbia: an ecological perspective

To shed empirical light on the debate surrounding the perceived ecological benefits of community forestry, I used multiple types of data to compare five community forests to geographically proximate conventional tenures. I used data generated from the BC Ministry of Forests RESULTS database to investigate proxy measures of ecologically sustainable forest management, including silviculture system usage, cutblock structural characteristics, and harvesting profiles. In addition, I conducted stakeholder interviews with fellow researchers to help inform the choice of proxy measures employed, as well as to provide a qualitative context for silviculture and harvesting data. Community forests are largely managing in a more ecologically sustainable manner than their counterparts. They are more likely to employ alternative silviculture systems, and out-perform their counterparts in certain measures of stand structure and representativeness of harvesting. However, variation exists among community forests, and some measures suggest areas in which improved management practices would be beneficial.