Forest Management Agreement Area

What is a Forest Management Agreement?

The Alberta government owns and regulates all forests on provincial public land. To harvest Crown timber, forest companies must have an agreement with the provincial government called a forest tenure. We obtained our original Forest Management Agreement (FMA) in 1991, the most secure forest tenure in Alberta.

Through the FMA, we have the right to grow, harvest and remove Crown timber for commercial use. In the agreement, we are obligated to develop a Forest Management Plan for the FMA area, maintain the forest inventory, consult with the public and Indigenous communities and follow all provincial laws and regulations. These agreements are negotiated and renewed every 20 years.

Our FMA Area

Our FMA area covers approximately 6.4 million hectares of boreal forest in Northeast Alberta. Two million hectares are verified as harvestable forest, while nearly 4.4 million hectares consist of wetlands. We share our FMA area with many other users, including energy and transportation sectors, Indigenous communities, recreational users and our seven quota holders. We are committed to giving back to the communities within and near our FMA area through various scholarship and funding opportunities.