Omineca Beetle Action Coalition’s Future Forest Summit
2009
On September 19th, 2008, a Future Forest Summit was hosted at UNBC through a partnership between UNBC’s Community Development Institute (CDI) and the Omineca Beetle Action Coalition (OBAC). Results from the Summit were to inform OBAC’s “Future Forest Products and Fibre Use Strategy”. With a focus on future forest and fibre opportunities, the central message was that communities want the future forest to support economic opportunity (for a range of small to large economic players), quality of life, and the environmental services that protect both economic and quality of life assets. The discussion focussed on the need to create viable community futures. This included attention to keeping resource revenues in the north to sustain social and economic development, and to renew infrastructure for moving into more diverse and viable future economies.
Funding for this project came from Western Economic Diversification Canada’s Community Economic Development Initiative and OBAC.