Forest Compliance Monitoring

Introduction

In Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) through a vigorous compliance monitoring program of forest operations, assesses activities for compliance with all applicable laws, plans and rules.

Preventing damage to the Crown forest and ensuring remedial action is the primary focus of forest operations compliance monitoring and inspection. Ontario has developed a credible forest operations compliance monitoring program to inspect and report on access, harvest, renewal and maintenance activities.

A residual tree is damaged when due care is not taken.

The Forest Operations Information Program (FOIP) collects and stores information from all forest compliance inspection reports for analysis and reporting to MNR, the forest industry and the public.

The compliance monitoring program is integral to ensuring the sustainable management of Ontario's forests. Continued improvement and adaptive management allow this program to increase its effectiveness and ensure sustainable forest management

Self Monitoring and Reporting Compliance – A Partnership Model

In Ontario, forest operations compliance is delivered through a partnership model between the forest industry and the Ministry of Natural Resources. The program includes planning, monitoring, inspection, reporting, training and education.

Forest Industry role (Sustainable Forest Licence (SFL) holder):

The SFL holder, as conditions of the licence, carries out several activities including:

A good example of shelterwood harvest in White Pine

• forest management planning
• harvesting
• access road construction
• forest renewal and maintenance (tending & insect/disease protection)

As part of the compliance partnership model, they monitor and report on compliance of forest operations to legislation, approved plans and operational standards on their licence area. The SFL holder is legally required to report all incidents of non-compliance on their management unit to MNR within specified timelines. This includes infractions incurred by the SFL holder, overlapping licensees, and contractors who contravene the Crown Forest Sustainability Act. They are also required to report incidents caused by non-related persons (like a private individual) but these are not recorded against the SFL holder.

Ministry of Natural Resources’ role:

MNR is the regulatory agency with respect to forest operations compliance and is responsible for monitoring/auditing, spot-checking forest industry activities, investigation, enforcement, and determining remedies. MNR verifies all instances of non-compliance as reported by forest industry and decides on an appropriate remedy to apply.

On the few Crown management units where no SFL exists, MNR still conducts forest operations inspections, and delivers all aspects of the compliance program.

Forest Operations Compliance Inspectors

All MNR and forest industry forest operations compliance inspections are carried out by trained and certified inspectors to ensure the integrity of the program and the credibility of the inspectors. They are required to be trained and achieve certification that must be renewed every five years.

Reporting

All inspections conducted by MNR and the forest industry are documented in inspection reports. These reports are submitted to and stored in the provincial web-based database system called Forest Operations Information Program (FOIP).

Reports of forest operations inspections are made available to the public on this web site and provincial summaries of inspections are included in the provincial Annual Report on Forest Management.

Copies of individual reports of forest operations inspections are also available by request, from MNR’s local district offices.

An improperly installed culvert collapses.