Trends in renewable resource management in BC

Abstract

We examined trends in legal responsibilities, budgets and staffing, primarily for the BC government’s renewable resource ministries (forests, fish, wildlife, and parks). Legal responsibilities (complexity) of forest management expanded substantially from 1912 to 2011, almost tripling in the last 25 years. Government expenditures on renewable resources increased steadily from 1975 to 1997, but decreased by approximately half since then. However, the budgets for the remaining “non-resource” sectors of government more than doubled since 1997. The number of professional foresters employed in both government and industry has declined in recent years, more so in industry. Although the total number of professional biologists in the province has increased steadily since 1980, the Ministry of Environment has lost nearly 30 percent of its biologists since 2002. These decreases in funding and staffing jeopardize key management functions, and put the province’s renewable natural resources at increasing risk