Overview
A forest management agreement (FMA) is a long-term (20 year), renewable, area-based form of forest tenure. It is the most secure tenure type of tenure in Alberta. Through the FMA a company is given certain rights, including the right to establish, grow, harvest and remove Crown timber. These rights are granted in exchange for various responsibilities such as forest management planning and creation and maintenance of the forest inventory within the boundary of the FMA.
When the Minister contemplates a decision about entering into a new FMA, or renewing an FMA, the Forest Management Agreement Decision Policy is applied.
An FMA allocates timber and provides rights regarding that Crown timber and requires an approved forest management plan to be in place before any timber can be harvested. Alberta owns all timber located on provincial public ‘Crown’ lands.
The FMA is a model of shared government-industry responsibility and commitment, whereby the industry assumes a large share of the forest management responsibility with government oversight. In return for this commitment, the Crown grants the company long-term tenure security upon which to base investments in manufacturing plants. This long-term security includes a compensation mechanism if lands are withdrawn from their FMA.
FMAs provide stable, high paying jobs, rural community economic stability and sustainable forest management for Albertans.
Alberta currently has 21 forest management agreements, including 3 joint agreements. Agreement holders must follow sound forest management practices designed to provide a yield consistent with sustainable forest management principles and practices.
Agreement area sizes
Figure 1. Map of current forest management agreement boundaries
The size of each forest management agreement in Alberta varies. The largest FMA is in northeastern Alberta and covers approximately 58,120 square km. It is managed by Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. The smallest FMA, at 585 square km near Slave Lake, is managed by Vanderwell Contractors (1971) Ltd.
Spatial boundaries
Spatial boundaries for forest management agreement areas and the associated forest management unit boundaries can be downloaded from from AltaLIS spatial data, as part of their Base Features Geo Admin layer.
Responsibilities of holders
Forest management agreement holders must follow sound forest management practices. These practices are designed to provide a yield consistent with sustainable forest management principles and practices.
FMA holders must also consider a broad range of forest values and social, economic and environmental factors such as:
- watershed protection
- maintenance of biodiversity
- maintenance and protection of wildlife habitat
Forest management planning
Agreement holders take on significant responsibility and accountability for forest management planning consistent with the Government of Alberta’s commitment to sustainable resource development. In addition, FMA holders are required to provide an opportunity for public consultation during the development of a forest management plan for the area.
Find out more about:
Reforestation
Under Alberta law, a forest management agreement holder is responsible for the planning and reforestation following harvest operations. Reforestation efforts must be completed within 2 years of harvest. It must take place in all areas where timber is harvested.
The government sets reforestation standards and receives annual reforestation results from all commercial timber disposition holders. These results are monitored to ensure reforestation is successful.
Learn more about forest management standards and practices:
Current agreement holders
Current agreement holders and their respective forest management agreements are listed below: