Forest Summit Final Report, Dec 31, 2019

The final report from the Forest Summit & Convergence that took place in October in Nelson, BC is now available.

The report summarizes what happened at the event, and includes conclusions of the lead organizer, Jennifer Houghton, as well as notes from the presentations and the group sessions.

The entire report can be viewed or downloaded here: https://boundaryforest.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Forest-Summit-Report-FINAL-DRAFT-DEC-30.pdf

You can also read the first 7 pages of the report below:

INTRODUCTION

Hello,

My name is Jennifer Houghton and I was the lead organizer for the Forest Summit & Convergence that took place October 26 & 27, 2019 in Nelson, BC.

Thanks to everyone who contributed, the event generated incredible content and fantastic energy.

A great big thanks to all the volunteers! Without your behind-the-scenes help, this event wouldn’t have happened.

ORIGINS OF THE EVENT

My home in Grand Forks was flooded in 2017 and 2018 due to a combination of climate change and clear cutting in the Boundary watershed. As a result, since 2018 I’ve spent a great deal of my time learning about forestry in BC and co-founded the Boundary Forest Watershed Stewardship Society. I saw that not only are our ecosystems being destroyed by forestry practices but communities are suffering as well. Despite the enormous efforts of numerous community advocates to enact changes to forestry practices in their regions, the BC government continues to reinforce the damaging industrial forestry model which is written into BC forestry legislation.

The Convergence was intended to provide a forum to bring together those who want to create a unified voice to tell the government to change forestry legislation so that it protects and restores forest ecosystems.

We advertised the Convergence as a grassroots call to action to:

To identify the basic principles and values that should underpin forestry activity, to identify and summarize solutions, and to outline next steps.
Motivate fellow citizens and communities to mitigate the climate crisis, protect forests and water, and preserve species biodiversity.
Influence and steer government legislation, policy, and action.

Pre-Summit Agenda & description can be found here: https://boundaryforest.org/forest-summit-convergence/

THE PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

Summarize the Forest Summit & Convergence for citizens, organizers, and government.
Provide a basis for catalyzing unified action amongst people who want to see BC legislation and regulations protect and restore BC forest ecosystems.
Make it clear that the people of BC want action to protect forests NOW.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE EVENT

On Day One, seven speakers presented information and solutions (notes start on p. 8 of the PDF). On Day Two, attendees came together in group sessions to discuss ideas and solutions (notes start on p. 16 of the PDF).

Watch the recorded presentations here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6OZCdhyzmk

People wrote thoughts and feelings on a big sheet of paper at the front entrance

The themes that emerged from the Convergence:

People want action now.
A new vision for forestry is needed.
Leadership, organization, and resources are required at a grassroots level.

Here are some of the quotes from participants during the group sessions:

The 80-or-so attendees included students, environmental activists, representatives from environmental organizations from across BC, residents being impacted by forestry activities, Indigenous people, representatives from community watershed groups, union members, local government, and others concerned about our ecosystem health (mainly from around the Kootenays, Okanagan, and the Boundary regions).

Some attendees expressed a sense of powerlessness about climate change and what’s happening to our forests. Frustration about government inaction was palpable. While there is still some uncertainty about exactly what each of us can do, it is my hope that what will ensue from the Convergence includes collaboration, the emergence of strong leaders, and organized action.

One of the moments that sticks in my mind occurred when we were discussing why this is important to us and one of the students from Okanagan College said, “I don’t want to discuss the why because its obvious. I just want to talk about what we’re going to do now.”

While the opinions expressed in the report summary and conclusions are my own, in deciding how to create a report about the event, I read through all the notes and decided to not only summarize my take but also to include the actual notes from the group sessions (p.16-30 of PDF). This way, attendees can speak for themselves without an interpretation being imposed on their views. The people at the Convergence are caring, concerned citizens who want to make a difference in British Columbia. Their views matter.

It makes for a lengthy document. However, the raw notes are worth reviewing if you are looking for ideas to make change. Readers can choose to use this data any way they like. For example, to launch an initiative, this data can be used as aresource, a springboard for ideas, or a solid place to start.

Small groups of attendees, led by facilitators, first discussed what issues are important to us and then we discussed our ‘whys’. From those results, 7 main themes were chosen:

Political Action, Engagement, Legal Action, Legislative Change
Connection with People and Ecosystems
Self-Organization of this group, Vision, Common Goal
Meaningful Collaboration with First Nations
Education, Self-Development, Story Telling
Youth Movement
Data, Environment Protection, Conservation

The groups then tackled the issue of ‘Next Steps’ around each of the 7 themes (group notes start on page 16 of PDF).

NEXT STEPS

A VISION

It is time to create and enact a Big Audacious Goal: a New Vision for BC forests. This must be generated by citizens, government, workers, and industry all working together.

The word vision came up 13 times in the notes from the group sessions. Once a vision is spelled out, the next step is to create a strategic plan that unites everyone in order to make the vision a reality.

The current BC government has no vision for forests. Rather than defining a new vision that takes ecosystem health and climate change into account, it is letting the vision (industrial forestry supportive of corporate profits) of the previous government perpetuate. The status quo will rule until a New Vision is defined. Since government continues to consult with status-quo-protecting industry about forestry decisions, it is up to the PEOPLE of BC to demand the government enact a New Vision.

What is this New Vision?

Although many ideas about it emerged at the Convergence, it has yet to be articulated precisely. Clarifying that vision is one of the steps in citizen organizing and will require citizen leaders to make it happen. In the least, the New Vision must:

Include citizens having a say about forests (public oversight)
Put the health of ecosystems first (and in turn create jobs and community security)

It became clear during the group sessions that one of our struggles as grassroots folk is how to take unified action. We want to take effective unified action but how we get there without enormous financial backing is the challenge. We have the desire, the ideas, and the will, but not the money.

So how do we, as citizens, even begin to materialize a New Vision?

By three means:

Leaders
Strategy
Organizing

LEADERS

A leader or leaders from within communities are required first. Communities, citizens, and grassroots do-ers cannot take concerted, unified action until we have leaders. These are the individuals who take up the baton and run with it. Leaders attract teams. Teams create strategy. Strategy produces organized effective action.

Once a leader steps up, an organized group can seek out funding as part of the overall strategy.

There’s the rub though – we are grassroots. We are community members. We are volunteers. Who is the person who can be the leader without financial support? Chicken and egg.

For those who would suggest BC Coalition for Forestry Reform (BCCFR) take on that role, it may be possible at some point, but once again, there has to be a leader. Right now, BCCFR does not have a leader. It is being run by a few volunteers who are not able to take on the leadership position due to work commitments.

STRATEGY AND ORGANIZING

Rather than struggling through the moment, rather than being reactionary and resorting to disconnected tactics, we, as citizens, need to put in place a sustaining strategy that’s going to keep sending the same message to the government and thus be more likely to get implemented…..a strategy is what makes the difference.

Tactics are only powerful when aggregated to drive a big strategy.

But until leaders emerge to pull together a cohesive strategy, we can all take action via the tactics listed below and in the notes (p.16-30 of PDF).

SOME IDEAS FOR NEXT STEPS

Meetings and working groups that come together to draft:
- New Vision
- a new set of Forestry Principles
A central hub of information for grassroots and environmental groups
A follow-up event.
Formation of a steering committee.
Traveling team project (see Appendix C, p. 30 of PDF)

TACTICS TO PRESS FOR A NEW VISION

How to make each tactic count for more: focus each tactic around the fact that a New Vision is needed. Press all levels of government to understand that systemic changes are needed immediately and this requires a New Vision which includes public oversight of public lands and ecosystem protection.

Write letters about the New Vision. Write to FLNRORD, MOE, your MLA, your MP, your local government. Get others in your circle to write the same letters. The other key people to contact in government are deputy ministers because the Ministers take information from them (see p. 32 for current deputy minister contact info).
When proposing solutions (written & verbal), articulate how proposed solutions fit into a New Vision.
Make calls to government about what you want the New Vision to include.
Bring together a team of people to create a delegation to your local government or City Council and propose a New Vision for your local region.
Join up with existing groups (both local and larger) who are already working on this.
Have kitchen table discussions that focus on action, solutions, and movement towards a New Vision.
Protest and march – increases awareness and builds solidarity. Create signage that speaks about a New Vision.
Join the Facebook group. This is a forum to share information and connect with each other. This is where you can get people to join initiatives you are undertaking: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1019165341760551/
If you start an online forum, please share it with the Convergence group. (The shareable list of emails has been sent out to attendees a few times).
Launch a project for your watershed, your neighborhood, your town that embodies the New Vision.
Seek out collaborations with unions, workers, and others to build mutual understanding of how a New Vision will impact us all.
Create a working group that drafts a New Vision or New Forestry Principles (see below) and share it far and wide.
Create something out-of-of-the-box. Business as usual isn’t working. A New Vision requires new thinking.

CONCLUSIONS

With the diversity of perspectives that were voiced at the Convergence, it is critical to keep the focus clear: a New Vision for BC forests must be enacted and NOW. When we write, when we protest, when we discuss, when we meet we must stay focused on the concept of a New Vision and not allow other issues to distract us. Vision first – then the other pieces fall into place.

This New Vision must include, but is not limited to:

Meaningful public participation in decisions about public land
Protection of ecosystems

And it must be written into and reflected by our laws, legislation, regulations, and policies at all levels.

The Forest Summit & Convergence was a profound event but attending the event was not the commitment. It was the preparation. The event itself was a catalyst for transformative action – so that each of us can go back to our communities and kick ass at a higher, more prominent level.

Volunteers, protestors, and workers are needed in this cause. But in order for their efforts to effect meaningful change, there have to be leaders. Leaders can manage a BC-wide cause, assemble and communicate a vision, and direct the tactics so that they combine into an effective strategy.

Protests are good. Letter writing is good. Petitions are good. But meaningful, deep change requires leaders who create a strategy.

We are, each of us, leaders in our own way. Let’s change the game, my friends. Launch an initiative. Make it happen.

Let us all strive to be agents of change and to be leaders and influencers. Let us perfect a strategy that drives behavior in government, in communities, in individuals, and in companies to get the results we want. Let us lead the way to a New Vision for forestry in BC.

We want stellar results. We want thriving ecosystems that are immune to climate change and that are in fact, so healthy, they have a positive impact on the global climate. And we want to get on that road now – not after more surveys, not after more engagements, not after we’ve lost anything more, not while we watch Australia burn. We want it NOW.

Does that feel like something that we CAN do? It does to me. We just need to have a strategy, formulated by leaders, and undertaken by citizens.

However, time is not on our side. Something formidable and revolutionary may be required to light a fire under the asses of government persons. Unfortunately, it may come in the form of actual flames as our trees, livelihoods, and homes burn as a result of government inaction and corporate greed.

Let us move quickly in the direction of this New Vision by repeating and affirming the same message across BC: we need a New Vision for forestry – one that prioritizes thriving ecosystems, public oversight, and future jobs all at the same time.

Let us also encourage and support the emergence of new leaders.

Think big. Think non-violent revolution. Think colossal change.

Written by Jennifer Houghton, Lead Organizer, [email protected]

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:

Theresa Hall donated Hart Hall.

Wildwood Ecoforest

Homestead Organic Farm, Peachland

Kootenay Coop Bakery & Cafe

Tom Newell, Regional Director, Electoral Area F, Regional District of Central Kootenay

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Ramona Faust, Regional Director, Electoral Area E, Regional District Central Kootenay

Andy Davidoff, Regional Director, Electoral Area I, Regional District of Central Kootenay

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