Public Notice for Forest Management Certification Re-‐Assessment of Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, Inc., Canada April 10, 2015 Introduction The Rainforest Alliance is conducting a forest management and chain of custody certification re-‐
assessments of Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, Inc. (Al-‐Pac) located in northeastern Alberta, Canada. The re-‐assessment will be conducted May 25-‐29, 2015. Scope of the Certification Re-‐Assessment The forest management certification re-‐assessment will assess the environmental, silvicultural and socioeconomic aspects of FMA managed by Al-‐Pac using the FSC National Boreal Standard (2004). The standard is available on the FSC Canada website at: http://ca.fsc.org/national-‐boreal-‐
standard.203.htm . Rainforest Alliance is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council®1 (FSC®) and this re-‐assessment process must follow procedures which have been approved by the FSC. Re-‐Assessment Team Composition Keith Moore (Lead Auditor, Forester) Keith is a registered professional forester (RPF in BC) and has an M.A. in Geography from the University of British Columbia. He has been working in forestland management and environmental assessment in Canada and other countries since 1976. From 1995 to 2000, Keith was the Chair of British Columbia’s Forest Practices Board. Since 2000, he has been a team member or team leader with RA on over 80 different FSC pre-‐assessments, assessments, annual audits and major NCR verification audits in five provinces of Canada, in Russia, Australia, Indonesia, the US and Cameroon. He is very familiar with three of the regional FSC standards in Canada and has also been involved in the development of regional standards in Russia, Montenegro, Kenya and Australia. Keith participated in the recent processes to revise the FSC Principles and Criteria and to write International Generic Indicators and has participated in FSC policy development at regional, national and international levels. He is a member of the Policy and Standards Committee of the FSC International Board. Keith is an RA-‐trained FSC Forest Management lead auditor and has ISO 9001 Lead Auditor certification. Keith participated as the lead auditor on 6 past FSC audits/assessments for Al-‐Pac. Chris Wedeles (Forest Ecologist) (M.Sc). Chris is a wildlife biologist specializing in the relationship between forest management and wildlife ecology. Chris has been a professional consultant since 1986 and for the last sixteen years has been a partner in ArborVitae Environmental Services Ltd. In his consulting career Chris has worked on forest-‐related projects in every province in Canada. Chris has led or participated in 19 FSC assessments/audits and approximately 40 Independent Forest Audits in Ontario. Chris frequently acts as team leader for FSC and IFA assessments/audits; he is also a certified ISO auditor. Other 1
Rainforest Alliance is an FSC accredited certifier FSC® A000520 FM-44 – 19Aug13
recent relevant experience includes: being a technical writer in the development of FSC’s National Boreal Standard (NBS), participating in a project to assess the wood-‐supply and ecological effects of the NBS, conducting a gap analysis on the NBS in anticipation of the Standard's revision, participating on the Science Panel to review the Standard's applicability to boreal caribou and, authoring recently-‐published reports on forest fragmentation, effects of forest management on birds, and effects of roads on forest ecosystems. Chris was an auditor on the 2006-‐2008 Al-‐Pac FM annual audits. Jeremy Williams (Aboriginal and Community Relations Specialist) Jeremy earned a B.Sc.F. from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Forestry (1979) and a Ph.D. from the same Faculty with a specialization in Forest Economics (1986). He successfully completed QMI’s environmental lead auditor course for ISO 14000 in 2000, and in 2009 took the Rainforest Alliance Lead Auditor training course. Dr. Williams is a Registered Professional Forester in Ontario (# 1562). Dr. Williams has a wide range of experience in forest management in Canada, and has worked in most provinces and territories, as well as internationally. Within Ontario, he is familiar with both the Great Lakes-‐St. Lawrence and boreal forest types. He has participated in 31 Independent Forest Audits, including more than 15 as lead auditor. He has also undertaken several FSC assessments and a half dozen annual audits. One indicator of the breadth of his experience was his role as a technical writer for the 2004 FSC National Boreal Standard, and subsequent involvement in preliminary activities related to updating the standard. Other recent, relevant work has included an assessment of the MNR’s approach for assessing sustainability in forest planning, co-‐authoring a vision document that played an influential role in the revision of Ontario forest tenure, developing a conceptual forest management plan for the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve, and preparation of a gap analysis of the NBS prior to its revision. Jeremy has completed the Rainforest Alliance Lead Auditor training course in 2009, and has led 15 FSC evaluations for Rainforest Alliance. Jeremy was the lead auditor on the 2014 Al-‐Pac annual audit. Nicholas Reynolds (Environmental Specialist) Nick has worked in the forest industry for 20 years ranging from wildlife biology, silviculture, forest ecology and land use planning. He has worked in academia, with government and industry, as well as intensively with First Nations on the coast of B.C. through his capacity as a researcher, GIS analyst and negotiator. He is a forester with a Masters in Sustainable Forest Management from UBC, and is a Chain of Custody Lead Auditor for Rainforest Alliance. Nick as completed the Rainforest Alliance FM lead auditor training course in 2014. This is his first FSC FM audit. Re-‐Assessment Steps and Schedule Following is a short description of the certification process and a tentative agenda: • Re-‐assessment organization: The Rainforest Alliance team will begin planning, outreach and stakeholder consultation the week of April 27, 2015. • Field assessments: The team will visit sites managed by Al-‐Pac from May 25-‐29, 2015. • Stakeholder consultation: Throughout the fieldwork, the team will contact local stakeholders regarding the Al-‐Pac’s management of the FMA in areas surrounding the forest area. This will include private interviews and discussions, and stakeholder meetings. • Final re-‐assessment briefing: Prior to departure the team will meet with Al-‐Pac’s managers and other parties to finalize their data collection and present preliminary findings. • Draft report production: The re-‐assessment team will produce a confidential draft report that will be circulated for comment to Al-‐Pac. FM-44 – 19Aug13
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Certification decision: Upon receipt of comments on the draft report from Al-‐Pac’s managers and other general stakeholder comments, Rainforest Alliance will reach a certification decision. Barring unforeseen obstacles, this should occur by the week of August 24. Your Input Sought As a part of the forest certification assessment process, we invite stakeholders to offer comment and feedback on Al-‐Pac’s forest management in relation to conformance with the requirements of the forest management standard referenced above. We welcome input, either public or confidential, in whatever form is easiest and most secure for you. Your input will be valuable at any stage of the process, but we would prefer to receive your comments either prior to the re-‐assessment, during the re-‐assessment, or prior to May 25th so that we can take them into consideration in reaching a certification decision by August 28th. Your options for communicating your observations to us are as follows: 1. Meet with a Rainforest Alliance re-‐assessment team member during the week of fieldwork. 2. Call and give comments to Christine Korol, the Rainforest Alliance staff person responsible for coordinating this certification re-‐assessment from the Canada regional office. 3. Submit written comments by email or fax to Christine Korol. Unless you request otherwise, these comments will be kept confidential and are solely for the purposes of assessing Al-‐Pac. The source of any information provided will be kept confidential available to only the FSC and Rainforest Alliance staff and the auditors involved in the evaluation. Stakeholders who may wish to dispute any aspect of the forest certification process or decision can access Rainforest Alliance’s Complaints, Appeals and Dispute resolution procedures at http://www.rainforest-‐alliance.org/forestry/certification/transparency/dispute-‐resolution Contacting Rainforest Alliance • Email: [email protected] for Christine Korol • Worldwide Website: www.rainforest-‐alliance.org. • Telephone: 416-‐531-‐0474 • FAX: 1-‐866-‐438-‐1971 FM-44 – 19Aug13