STEVE MERTLVANCOUVER (CP) - The B.C. government announced Friday it is preparing to apply environmental certification programs to a large swath of Crown-managed forest.

The decision comes as the government is faced with renewed threats of boycotts of B.C. wood products. Forests Minister Dave Zirnhelt told the Truck Loggers Association annual conference that certification will be applied to timber administered under the small-business forest enterprise program.

The program, which accounts for 13 per cent of British Columbia's allowable annual cut, gives small logging operators and value-added producers access to timber.

The lion's share of Crown forest licences are controlled by big companies, most of which are pursuing certification themselves under pressure from the international environmental movement.

Zirnhelt said the program will develop a province-wide environmental management system this year and will test the application of different certification systems in six projects around the province.

The system is required under the International Standards Organization but will also be designed to work with the Canadian Standards Association and the Forest Stewardship Council. The last one is the one preferred by groups such as Greenpeace.
The goal is to show timber in certified areas is harvested in an environmentally sound, sustainable way. Zirnhelt said the move is significant because the small-business program is the largest single timber licensee in the province. "It's absolutely essential that wood be certified to have a leg up in the marketplace," he said.

The province recognizes certification is necessary to please buyers under increasing pressure from the environmental lobby. The NDP government's six-year-old Forest Practices Code was supposed to help erase British Columbia's image as a place where centuries-old trees are felled in massive clearcuts.

But environmentalists claim the rules have been sidestepped thanks to insufficient enforcement and gutted to help the industry cut costs.
International groups have continued to push for boycotts."Major purchasers in Britain and the United States are lining up to say 'If we don't get satisfaction in the way you do land-use planning and forest management and you don't ultimately have certification, we won't buy,' " said Zirnhelt. "So they've served notice."

Zirnhelt made the announcement in a speech defending the NDP government's track record with the ailing forest industry.
Liberal leader Gordon Campbell spoke to the conference Thursday and attacked the government for what he considers its anti-forest industry policies. Campbell promised the loggers more access to timber, less forest-management bureaucracy, abolition of Forest Renewal B.C. and compensation for losses incurred because of current government land-use policies. "I don't think blaming all the problems of the past decade on this government alone is either realistic or honest," said Zirnhelt. Bureaucratic streamlining has saved the industry $1 billion in costs, he said. And contrary to Opposition claims, net jobs have grown by 7,000 in the last five years - though work has shifted to value-added sectors, he said.The government is pushing ahead with land-tenure reform, said Zirnhelt, adding allowable annual timber cut has actually gone up in some areas that can sustain it.

He also pledged to quickly implement recommendations of a forest policy review, due to be tabled within six weeks. "We need momentum in this industry," said Zirnhelt.

Earlier this week, Garry Wouters, who's heading up the review, told the conference he would recommend the province test market-based pricing for timber in pilot projects. Shifting away from the current stumpage formula could help lift the troubled coastal forest industry out of the doldrums.

Zirnhelt also promised to keep pushing the federal government to lift tax bills levied against 6,300 forest workers who received money from Forest Renewal B.C. training and support programs. Some owe as much as $10,000. Zirnhelt wrote National Revenue Minister Martin Cauchon on Monday, asking for a meeting to discuss the impact of the pre-Christmas tax bills on displaced forest workers helped by the program. The government is sticking by legal and accounting opinions it received that the payments were tax exempt, though it earlier warned recipients that Ottawa thought differently."The fact is people are caught right now between fighting between our governments and I want our government to fight on behalf of the workers," said Zirnhelt.
But Zirnhelt said he can't guarantee the recipients won't ultimately be forced to pay the tax bills.

© The Canadian Press, 2000

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