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Community forestry is a collaborative governance approach to forest management that is seen as a promising tool for implementing sustainable forest management. The expectation of government is that community forests, as managers of public forestlands, will work to achieve sustainability. Little has been written, however, about the ways community forests are being managed in an effort to realize this goal. This paper considers how the Wetzin'kwa Community Forest Corporation (WCFC) in British Columbia is working to sustainably manage its community forest. The study identified efforts taken by the WCFC towards achieving sustainable forest management as perceived by participants, and considered these in relation to indicators established by the provincial government and the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers. The results reveal that WCFC is making progress towards sustainably managing the forest by taking action on issues such as local employment and protecting cultural values. However, it is difficult to make a definitive statement as to whether these efforts are modest or advanced, partly because the WCFC has not developed a set of criteria and indicators to measure its own performance, and also due to the lack of a clear framework from government for measuring the achievements of such small-scale forestry operations in relation to sustainability.Key words: sustainable forest management, community forestry, criteria and indicators, British Columbia, Canada. RÉSUMÉLa foresterie communautaire est une forme d'approche de gestion collaborative en aménagement forestier qui aurait du potentiel comme outil d'aménagement forestier durable. À titre de gestionnaire du domaine forestier publique, le gouvernement s'attend à ce que les forêts communautaires s' orientent vers la durabilité. Il y a peu d' écrits sur la façon d'aménager les forêts communautaires aménagées dans la poursuite de cet objectif. Cet article s'intéresse à la façon dont la Wetzin'kwa Community Corporation (WCFC) de la Colombie-Britannique s' efforce d'aménager sa forêt communautaire de façon durable. L' étude fait ressortir les efforts déployés par la WCFC pour atteindre un niveau d'aménagement forestier durable tel que vu par les participants et les a comparés aux indicateurs retenus par le gouvernement provincial et le Conseil canadien des ministres des forêts. Les résultats indiquent que la WCFC s'achemine progressivement vers un aménagement durable de la forêt en agissant sur des enjeux comme le niveau d' emploi local et la protection des valeurs culturelles. Il est toutefois difficile d' établir de façon claire s'il s'agit d' efforts modestes ou majeurs, notamment parce que la WCFC n'a pas élaboré de critères ni d'indicateurs pour mesurer sa propre performance et vu l'absence d'un cadre gouvernemental pré-cis d' évaluation des réalisations en matière de durabilité pour des opérations forestières à petite échelle.

An important outcome of social learning in the context of natural resource management is the potential for collective action—actions taken by a group of people that are the result of finding shared or common interest. Evidence of the relationship between collective action and social learning is beginning to emerge in the natural resource management literature in areas such as community forestry and participatory irrigation, but empirical evidence is sparse. Using a qualitative inquiry and research design involving a case study of the Wet’zinkw’a Community Forest Corporation, this paper presents research that examined the relationships between collective action and social learning through community forest management. Our findings show strong evidence of collective action outcomes on the part of board members responsible for the community forest, such as establishing a legacy fund, adding value to logs, protecting First Nations cultural values, and hiring locally. Our data also reveal that the actions taken by board members were encouraged through social learning that was related to acquiring (new) knowledge, developing an improved/deeper understanding, and building relationships. However, we found limited opportunities for community forest partners and the general public to learn and contribute to collective action outcomes since the actions taken and associated learning occurred mainly among board members.

Municipal solid waste management approaches in Canadian First Nations have not considered the culture of communities. However, First Nations’ way of life is ingrained in their culture. This research examined whether the culture of First Nations impacts municipal solid waste management. A qualitative case study of Peguis First Nation, Manitoba, and Heiltsuk Nation, British Columbia, was conducted, involving 52 semi-structured interviews. Results revealed that avoiding waste, taking care of one another, protecting the land, respecting the land, and connection to the land were cultural factors that influenced participants’ municipal solid waste management efforts. Nonetheless, participants indicated that applying these cultural factors to municipal solid waste is not widespread because of culture loss; hence, programs that improve the understanding of culture and highlight the importance of cultural beliefs, values, and teachings in managing waste should be developed. The research concludes that cultural solutions need to be pursued to complement other solutions that aim to improve municipal solid waste management.