Co-Management Efforts as Social Movements: The Tin Wis Coalition and the Drive for Forest Practices Legislation in British Columbia

Abstract

"In 1991, a model forest practices act that would radically transform methods of forest management in British Columbia was proposed by a coalition of First Nations, trade unions, environmentalists and small businesses. If implemented, the Tin Wis Forest Stewardship Act would see the province of British Columbia give a prominent forest management role to bioregional boards. The proposed legislation followed two decades of activism in the community forestry movement in BC and represented an attempt to institute a co-management agreement between the provincial government and the communities, aboriginal people and other stakeholders most affected by forestry practices in the long run.

"The effort to write and raise support tor the Forest Stewardship Act provides an important opportunity to consider new middle-range theoretical propositions predicting the conditions under which co-management agreements successfully arise and persist. Co-management of Crown or state-owned forests in particular is an ideal vehicle for exploring co-management because of the numerous and tightly entwined resources involved in a forest ecosystem: fisheries, wildlife and water all 'flow through' the forest and have complex symbiotic relationships which are affected by changes to the forest."