{"id":16,"date":"2016-02-17T16:14:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T23:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alrmap\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2016-02-20T02:09:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T09:09:18","slug":"alr-background","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/alrmap\/alr-background\/","title":{"rendered":"ALR Background"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Columbia\u2019s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) is a provincial land use zone wherein agriculture is recognized as the priority use for approximately 4.6% of the land base of British Columbia, Canada. The ALR is often described\u00a0as one of the best examples of agricultural land preservation in the world <\/a>and is considered by many in the province as a pillar of regional food security.<\/a><\/p>\n

In BC, only 5% of the land base is considered suitable for agriculture and 2.7% capable of growing a reasonable range of crops (lands ranked as class 1-4 by the Canadian Land Inventory). Prime agricultural lands (1.1% of provincial land base) are often located in narrow valleys near densely populated urban areas and subject to heavy competition with other development uses.\u00a0Urban sprawl poses many challenges to agricultural land preservation and local food production in BC.<\/a>\u00a0It is estimated that in the early 1970s up to 6,000 hectares of farmland was annually lost to urban sprawl. Increasing public awareness of the threat of urban sprawl to scarce farmland directly led to creation of the ALR via the provincial Land Commission Act of 1973.<\/p>\n

The ALR is administered by an independent tribunal called the Provincial Agricultural Land Commission (often abbreviated as the ALC). The mandate\u00a0of the commission is to preserve agricultural land,\u00a0to encourage farming on agricultural land in collaboration with other communities of interest, and\u00a0to encourage local governments, first nations, the government and its agents to enable and accommodate farm use of agricultural land and uses compatible with agriculture in their plans, bylaws and policies.\u00a0Despite the role of the central tribunal, the ALR is divided into six geographic \u201cpanel regions\u201d wherein land management is influenced by many different local land policy regimes, biogeographical factors, and local political issues. These regions are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the Interior Panel Region<\/li>\n
  2. the Island Panel Region<\/li>\n
  3. the Kootenay Panel Region<\/li>\n
  4. the North Panel Region<\/li>\n
  5. the Okanagan Panel Region<\/li>\n
  6. the South Coast Panel Region<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As of September 2015, the ALR is also divided into two zones (see Figure 1). While agricultural use and preservation of agricultural\u00a0land is prioritized in Zone 1, in Zone 2 the commission is also required to\u00a0consider the following in descending order of priority\u00a0economic, cultural and social values, regional and community planning objectives, other prescribed considerations.<\/a><\/p>\n