Lək̓ʔəŋən [LEKWUNGEN] TERRITORY / VICTORIA, B.C. — Leader of the BC Greens and candidate for Saanich North and the Islands, launched the BC Greens’ plan to address the crisis facing B.C.’s forestry sector.
“British Columbia’s forest ecosystems and forest economy are both in crisis. Harvest levels have declined, mills have closed, communities have lost hundreds of jobs, and decades of mismanagement has left our forests and workers in a dire situation,” said Lowan. “We have cut too much, for too long. A lasting forestry economy cannot be built by trying to return to the harvest levels of the past.”
The economic returns from the government’s current approach have also collapsed, with provincial forest revenue providing just $397 million in 2025/26. Direct forest revenue now falls short of the operating cost of the Ministry of Forests.
The BC Greens reject the BC NDP’s proposed Working Forest Model, which would raise the annual harvest to 45 million cubic metres and lock B.C.’s most productive forests, including old growth, into industrial logging.
“You don’t decide how much wood to cut, then bend our forests around that number,” said Lowan. “B.C. forestry is already changing, and forestry communities are already living through mill closures and job losses. We can plan for it, or we can let this crisis continue. We should start with what each landscape needs to stay healthy, and build a forest economy that lasts for future generations of workers, communities, and forests.”
The BC Greens will:
- Reject the “Working Forest Model” and set sustainable harvest levels through regional, area-based forest planning.
- End raw-log exports and close loopholes that allow minimally processed or rough-sawn wood to leave British Columbia without meaningful processing.
- Permanently protect big-treed old growth and large second-growth forests from logging, fully implement all 14 recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review in partnership with First Nations, and provide conservation financing to support Indigenous-led protection and replace foregone forestry revenues where needed.
- Shift forestry toward partial harvesting, selective logging, commercial thinning, longer rotations and other practices that maintain more forest structure and better reflect the ecology of each landscape.
Click here to read our full Forestry Policy Brief.
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Media contact
Prym Goodacre, Media & Campaigns Officer
+778 650 0597
newsroom@bcgreens.ca