Certification of forestry activities is a best practice in forest and sustainable resource management. BC Timber Sales (BCTS) is committed to maintaining an environmental management system and following third-party sustainable forest management certifications.
Maintaining an effective environmental management system (EMS) supports BCTS's commitment to sustainable forest management certification. Environmental management systems also help meet due diligence requirements under the Forest and Range Practices Act.
Licensees, permittees, contractors and staff are guided by BCTS's province-wide environmental and sustainable forest management policies, and related program documents.
Related provincial program documents can also be found on the BCTS Business Area Environmental Management System (EMS) and Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) web pages.
After April 1, 2019, previous versions of EMS and SFM documentation is found here.
Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) certification under standards such as the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) address the ecological, cultural, social and economic aspects of sustainable forest management.
Sustainable forest management certification provides assurance to the public and customers that timber originates from legal and well-managed sources.
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) provides parameters (objectives, performance measures, and indicators) for sustainable forest management.
To report inconsistent practices:
Wood purchasers prefer or require forest certification in their corporate procurement policies and/or building code requirements that timber originate from legal and well managed forests.
Certification status is verified through the chain of custody. Chain of custody refers to the independent and credible verification that timber and forest products are tracked through all phases of ownership, processing and transportation, from the forest of origin to the end-consumer.
BCTS does not hold chain of custody certification, nor does it provide a system for tracking chain of custody. However, we provide the following information to clients to assist in their planning and for their chain of custody certification systems:
Timber sale licence sustainable forest management certification status is available for each BCTS business area:
For questions about forest certification, contact the BCTS Headquarters Certification Officer or BCTS business area.
For general questions about BC Timber Sales, contact BCTS Headquarters staff: