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Indicator 6.4.1 - Proportion of participants who are satisfied with public involvement processes in forest management in Canada core indicator 
One of the most common methods to foster on-going public participation in Canada is the local citizen advisory committee. There are many important reasons for local involvement in planning and decisionmaking processes that go beyond the bureaucratic requirements that are outlined by provincial law or through third-party certification. A well-developed public participation program can identify values and goals, identify unanticipated problems, produce information and new knowledge, promote learning, lend legitimacy to the decisions that are made, foster trust between individuals and organizations, and reduce conflict and delay. Local citizen advisory committees have become a popular tool for forest companies and governments to engage local stakeholders in forest management planning processes. Forest companies and provincial governments have sponsored approximately 65% and 35% of local advisory committees, respectively. Beyond reporting on the existence of these committees and on how frequently they meet, it is important to gain some measure of participant satisfaction with these processes. This indicator measures the level of satisfaction within the population concerning existing public advisory processes in forest management. It therefore looks beyond the mere quantity of public involvement and helps to quantify the quality of local citizen committee processes. One of the weaknesses of satisfaction surveys is that former committee members who dropped out of a process because of high levels of dissatisfaction are not included in the survey. Therefore, reported levels of satisfaction are likely to be higher than is the case in some communities. Members of citizen committees directly associated with forest management were surveyed in 2003 (Table 6.4a). Table 6.4a Citizen advisory committees and respondents who participated in the survey, by province.
Respondents were predominantly male (84%) and 50 years old on average. More than half had some university education (61%) and 7% self-identified as Aboriginal. On average, respondents had been involved with their respective committees for 4.1 years. Most of the respondents sought to represent the public at large (23%) but many others sought to represent a specific group of people, such as recreation groups (6%), municipal governments (5%), environmental groups (3%), other resource industries (5%), and Aboriginal organizations (2%). The level of satisfaction with committee processes was calculated on the basis of all responses except those from forest industry or provincial government representatives. This subset of respondents represents the layperson or citizen component of the survey participants. Results from the survey demonstrate that the process of involving citizens in forest management planning through local advisory committees is generally very effective, despite some needed improvements related to the framing of issues and the depth of information provided to participants. Generally, 74% of respondents indicated that they were either somewhat or completely satisfied with the overall process (Table 6.4b). Table 6.4b Satisfaction with overall committee process.
Several factors contributed to the overall assessment of satisfaction with the advisory committee processes. Discomfort associated with committee decisions stemmed mostly from a lack of information and the complexity of the issue (Table 6.4c). Table 6.4c Sources of discomfort associated with agreeing to committee decisions.
Respondents also provided some insights into other aspects of advisory committee processes (Table 6.4d). Results demonstrate a sense that the process is fair and an appreciation of the regular attendance of decision makers. However, only slightly more than half of the respondents agreed that their decisions accommodated the full spectrum of public interests or that they were able to influence the decisions made by the committee. Table 6.4d Agreement with various processes and functions of committee.
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