Study Confirms Forest Industry a Cornerstone of BC's Economy
Forest Industry Cornerstone of Economy
An economic study produced by PwC for the B.C. forest industry confirms that the sector continues to be a cornerstone of the provincial economy and one of the largest employers across the province.
140 communities in B.C. rely on the forest industry and are considered forest dependent through mills, community forests, or significant logging operations.
Employment opportunities
In 2016, the sector generated and supported more than 140,000 total jobs (59,900 direct and an additional 80,828 indirect and induced jobs) in the province. That amounts to forestry generating one out of every 17 jobs in the province and total labour income of $8.6 billion.
- 1 out of 4 manufacturing jobs in BC are in the forest industry
Sustainable Forestry
B.C. has vast forest resources with roughly 60% of its land base (55 million hectares) being productive forest land, providing rich, diverse, and abundant wood fibre. These forests contain approximately 11 billion cubic meters of standing timber.
B.C. is a world leader in sustainable forestry. The industry plants three trees for every tree harvested on average, and less than one percent of the timber land base is harvested each year. 259 million seedlings were planted in 2016 alone!
- The forest industry has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 60% since 1990
- Wood insulates 15x better than concrete and 4oox better than steel
Economy
- B.C. forest industry generated $33 billion in output and $12.9 billion in GDP to the province.
Major Exporter
- The United States was the top destination for B.C. forest exports in 2016, accounting for 53% of the industry’s exports.
- BC is the largest producer of softwood lumber in North America
- 11% of all rail traffic in Western Canada is forest products.
Read the full report here
Source:
BC Council of Forest Industries https://www.cofi.org
British Columbia’s Forest Industry and the BC Economy in 2016, PwC https://www.cofi.org/wp-content/uploads/BC-Forest-Report-FINAL-Sept-2017.pdf
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