Become a Forest Professional
Provincial legislation requires anyone practising professional forestry in BC be registered with, and regulated by, the Association of BC Forest Professionals (ABCFP). This protects the public interest by ensuring registered forest professionals meet specific educational and professional standards and can be held accountable for their work and conduct.
These legislative requirements are detailed in the Forest Professionals Regulation, the Professional Governance Act (PGA) and ABCFP Bylaws.
The simplest avenue to becoming a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) or Registered Forest Technologist (RFT) is to earn a degree or diploma from a nationally accredited program. Several BC and Canadian post-secondary institutions offer accredited forestry programs. However, many other forestry-related programs are not accredited. Non-accredited programs may not provide the core knowledge you need to become a registered member of the ABCFP.
You can graduate from a non-accredited program and still apply for registration with the ABCFP but you may be required to take additional educational courses or other gap-filling measures.