Series - Editorial Fellowship: Community Transitions and Resilience

Rooted in local knowledge: How BC’s community forests are advancing climate resilience

Author Neha Chollangi
With the increasing frequency of wildfires and other natural disasters, community forests are paving a path to climate resiliency led by locals

Why It Matters

As push for localization remains a big conversation in the social impact sector, Canada’s community forests serve as an example of harnessing local knowledge — and how that knowledge can strengthen and protect local communities.

This journalism is made possible by the Future of Good editorial fellowship on community resilience, supported by Co-operators. See our editorial ethics and standards here.

Between mountains, steep valleys, dense forests, and blue lakes in the Kootenay region of British Columbia are the communities of Harrop and Procter. With a long history of environmental activism, the Harrop-Procter Community Cooperative (HPCC) is an integral part of the area through forestry management, wildfire mitigation, and local job creation. 

Community forests are essentially when a locally-led community organization leads forestry management and makes environmental decisions in the surrounding area. They often rely on provincial funding to carry out projects.

Harrop-Procter’s community forest w

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