Can British Columbia Municipalities Adopt the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights?

On June 9, 2026, the Municipal Council of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Quebec, unanimously adopted Resolution No. 2026-06-111, becoming the first municipality in the world to officially adhere to the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.

This decision demonstrated that a Canadian municipality can recognize the principles of the Declaration and organize their progressive implementation without waiting for prior reform of federal or provincial law.

The same question now arises in British Columbia.

British Columbia municipal law differs from both Quebec and Ontario law. It nevertheless provides most municipalities with broad corporate, service, regulatory, environmental, planning and tree-protection powers under the Community Charter and the Local Government Act.

A British Columbia municipality may therefore, within the limits of its legal powers, officially adopt the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights and the Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities, and then progressively determine the administrative, financial, participatory, planning and regulatory measures best suited to its territory.

The District of Saanich provides a particularly instructive territorial example. Its Official Community Plan, Urban Forest Strategy, Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Tree Protection Bylaw already form a substantial municipal framework for canopy protection, biodiversity, climate resilience, land-use planning, public participation and long-term stewardship.

Saanich has not been selected because this article asserts that it has already adopted, or formally decided to consider, the Declaration. It is presented as an illustrative municipality whose existing legal and policy architecture demonstrates how the Declaration and the Fifteen Commitments could be integrated into an advanced British Columbia municipal framework.

1. Why the Declaration Is Universal

The Universal Declaration of Tree Rights is not tied to any particular legal, land-based or territorial mechanism.

It sets out common principles intended to transform the relationship between humanity and the Tree.

It affirms, in particular, that the Tree is a sentient living being, a source of Life and a common good of humankind; that Life on Earth depends upon the existence of the Tree; and that humanity must act towards the Tree in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity.

Its universal character does not mean that it would produce the same immediate legal effects everywhere.

It means that its principles can be recognized in different countries, cultures and legal systems, while their implementation is adapted to the powers, institutions, resources, Indigenous relationships and ecological characteristics of each territory.

In British Columbia, municipal implementation may rely upon existing responsibilities and instruments relating to:

• municipal environmental well-being;
• trees and urban forests;
• parks, highways and public places;
• public health and community resilience;
• protection of the natural environment;
• Official Community Plans and land-use planning;
• development permit areas and development permits;
• landscaping, soil, drainage and erosion control;
• natural assets and green infrastructure;
• public participation and advisory bodies;
• climate adaptation and greenhouse-gas reduction.

These instruments are not the Declaration itself. They are the means through which a municipality may progressively translate its principles into public action.

2. An Approach Compatible with Canada’s Constitutional and British Columbia Framework

Municipalities Fall Primarily Under Provincial Jurisdiction

Canada does not have a single, uniform municipal system.

Section 92(8) of the Constitution Act, 1867 assigns jurisdiction over municipal institutions to the provinces. British Columbia municipalities therefore exercise the powers granted to them by provincial legislation, their incorporation instruments and the other legal rules applicable to them.

A British Columbia municipality does not possess an independent constitutional jurisdiction comparable to that of the Parliament of Canada or the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

This does not prevent it from adopting environmental orientations, public policies, plans, programs, resolutions or bylaws within its areas of responsibility.

For most municipalities, the principal statutory framework is formed by the Community Charter together with the Local Government Act. The City of Vancouver is governed by the separate Vancouver Charter, and regional districts exercise a different set of powers under the Local Government Act. A Vancouver or regional-district adoption project therefore requires an instrument-specific analysis.

The District of Saanich is a district municipality governed by the general municipal framework of the Community Charter and the planning provisions of the Local Government Act.

3. Adopting the Declaration Is Not the Same as Entering into an International Treaty

Municipal adherence to the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights does not constitute the signing of an international treaty.

The Declaration establishes a common foundation.

The Fifteen Commitments provide a progressive roadmap.

Subsequent municipal decisions — policies, budgets, programs, bylaws, Official Community Plan amendments, development-permit guidelines and administrative practices — gradually give concrete effect to this orientation.

The proposed International Convention on Tree Rights belongs to a different institutional level. It currently exists as a proposed legal instrument but is not an international treaty in force. A municipality adopting the Declaration therefore does not become a contracting party to that Convention.

4. British Columbia Law Grants Municipalities Broad Powers

The Community Charter

The Community Charter is the principal statute governing the purposes, corporate powers, services, regulatory authority and decision-making of most British Columbia municipalities.

Section 4 provides that municipal powers are to be interpreted broadly in accordance with municipal purposes.

Section 7 states that those purposes include providing good government, providing services and laws for community benefit, stewarding public assets, and fostering the economic, social and environmental well-being of the community.

Section 8 gives a municipality the capacity, rights, powers and privileges of a natural person, authorizes it to provide services that council considers necessary or desirable, and expressly permits a council to regulate, prohibit and impose requirements by bylaw in relation to trees, public places, public health and protection of the natural environment.

These powers are directly relevant to:

• canopy protection and expansion;
• the conservation of significant, mature and ecologically important trees;
• permit systems for altering, cutting, damaging or removing protected trees;
• replacement planting and security requirements;
• public-tree and park management;
• root, soil and construction-site protection;
• urban heat reduction;
• stormwater management and erosion control;
• biodiversity and habitat;
• air quality, public health and neighbourhood well-being;
• the management of trees and ecosystems as natural assets.

Municipal authority remains subject to statutory restrictions, provincial enactments, matters of concurrent jurisdiction and the territorial limits of the municipality. A municipal bylaw has no effect to the extent that it is inconsistent with a provincial enactment.

5. A Resolution to Adopt the Principles, Bylaws to Impose Legal Obligations

The Government of British Columbia distinguishes between municipal decisions made by resolution and those requiring a bylaw.

A resolution is a formal expression of council’s opinion, will or intent. A bylaw is a law that legally implements a municipal decision and is generally required when council directs what persons may, may not or must do.

This distinction corresponds directly to the approach proposed by the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.

Under section 122 of the Community Charter, a council may exercise its authority only by resolution or bylaw. Where legislation requires or authorizes a power to be exercised by bylaw, a resolution cannot be substituted for that bylaw.

A municipal council may, in principle, endorse and institutionally adopt the Declaration and the Fifteen Commitments by resolution as a non-legislative statement of policy, principles and intent. The resolution cannot itself exercise a power that legislation requires to be exercised by bylaw, and it cannot irrevocably fetter the legislative or discretionary choices of future councils.

Adopting the Declaration never exempts a municipality from the ordinary procedures required for readings and adoption of a bylaw, the statutory consultation and public-hearing process applicable to an Official Community Plan, financial-plan approval, development-permit issuance, procurement, enforcement or administrative fairness.

6. The Community Charter Directly Permits Municipal Tree Protection

Section 8(3)(c) of the Community Charter expressly authorizes a council, by bylaw, to regulate, prohibit and impose requirements in relation to trees.

Section 15 allows a municipality, when regulating, to establish systems of licences, permits or approvals, including conditions, refusals, suspensions, cancellations and reconsideration mechanisms.

Sections 50 to 52 establish specific restrictions and safeguards relating to tree-protection bylaws. They address, among other matters, forestry tenures, private managed forest land, utility operations, permitted zoning uses and densities, compensation in limited circumstances, and reconsideration where authority has been delegated.

Within that statutory framework, a municipal tree bylaw may support measures relating to:

• the protection and preservation of designated trees;
• the regulation or prohibition of cutting, removal, alteration or damage;
• permit requirements and arborist reports, environmental assessments or other professional information where authorized by the applicable tree bylaw, development-approval-information bylaw, permit regime or other statutory instrument;
• identification of significant, heritage, habitat or landmark trees;
• protection of roots and soils;
• construction-site barriers and protection zones;
• replacement trees and maintenance requirements;
• security deposits and enforcement;
• inspection and reconsideration procedures.

The statutory power is substantial, but it is not unlimited. A tree-protection bylaw does not apply to certain forestry, private managed forest and utility circumstances identified in section 50. It must also accommodate permitted zoning uses and densities unless council, by resolution, commits the municipality to pay compensation to the affected owner for the resulting reduction in market value or to provide an alternative means of achieving the permitted use or density.

Agricultural Land and Protected Farming Activities

In municipalities containing Agricultural Land Reserve lands, including Saanich, tree-protection measures must also be reconciled with provincial agricultural legislation, protected farming activities and the jurisdiction of the Agricultural Land Commission.

Municipal tree authority cannot be presented as applying uniformly or at full strength to every agricultural activity or parcel. The legal effect of a proposed requirement depends upon the land, the nature of the activity and the applicable provincial agricultural rules.

7. Official Community Plans and Development Permits Provide Additional Means of Action

The Local Government Act provides a second major set of instruments for translating the Declaration into municipal planning and development decisions.

Section 471 defines an Official Community Plan as a statement of objectives and policies guiding planning and land-use management decisions within the area covered by the plan.

Under section 478, an Official Community Plan does not itself authorize or commit the municipality to proceed with a project identified in the plan. Once adopted, however, subsequent municipal bylaws and works must be consistent with it. The OCP therefore provides an important framework for policy direction and legal coherence, but it does not replace the permits, bylaws, budgets or individual decisions required for implementation.

An Official Community Plan can connect tree and canopy objectives with growth management, housing, transportation, public space, climate adaptation, infrastructure, biodiversity and long-term community form.

An OCP or OCP amendment must be adopted by bylaw. During its development or amendment, the local government must provide consultation opportunities it considers appropriate and specifically consider consultation with the regional district, adjacent local governments, First Nations and other affected authorities. If agricultural land may be affected, consultation with the Agricultural Land Commission is required. After first reading, the statutory adoption process also requires consideration alongside the financial plan and a public hearing.

Sections 488 to 491 allow a local government to designate development permit areas for purposes including protection of the natural environment, its ecosystems and biological diversity; protection from hazardous conditions; energy conservation; water conservation; and reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions.

Within a development permit area designated for protection of the natural environment, a development permit may, where authorized by the applicable guidelines:

• specify areas that must remain free of development;
• require natural features or areas to be preserved, protected, restored or enhanced;
• require works protecting or restoring natural watercourses or other natural features;
• require vegetation or trees to be planted or retained for fish habitat, riparian protection, drainage, erosion control or bank protection;
• impose conditions and standards within the limits prescribed by the Act.

Within a natural-environment development permit area, section 491 permits the protection, preservation, restoration or enhancement of specified natural features and allows trees or vegetation to be retained or planted for the particular environmental purposes identified by the Act, including fish habitat, riparian protection, drainage, erosion control and bank protection. Broader screening or landscaping requirements may be available under other statutory planning powers and development-permit-area categories, depending upon the applicable designation and guidelines. Security may be required only in the circumstances and for the purposes authorized by the Act.

Tree Protection Must Be Reconciled with Provincial Housing Requirements

Municipal tree protection and development-permit powers must be exercised consistently with current provincial housing legislation. Under section 457.1 of the Local Government Act, development-permit-area powers, land-use regulation bylaws and land-use permits must not be used in a manner that unreasonably prohibits or restricts the use or density required to be permitted for small-scale multi-family housing.

This does not prevent municipalities from protecting trees. It requires them to integrate tree retention, soil volume, replacement planting, site design, canopy objectives and green infrastructure into housing delivery without using environmental regulation as an indirect means of defeating provincially required housing capacity.

These planning powers must be exercised through the procedures, designations, guidelines and limits established by the Local Government Act. Adoption of the Declaration does not itself create a development permit area or amend an Official Community Plan. It supplies a coherent policy foundation for future lawful amendments and decisions.

8. Trees May Also Be Managed as Natural Assets and Green Infrastructure

Modern local-government management does not need to treat infrastructure as limited to roads, pipes, buildings and engineered structures.

British Columbia’s current local-government climate and asset-management resources expressly recognize natural assets and natural infrastructure. Forests, urban trees, wetlands, soils, streams and other ecosystems can provide services that replace, supplement or protect conventional infrastructure.

Depending upon local circumstances, trees and urban forests may provide essential services by:

• intercepting and infiltrating rainwater;
• reducing surface runoff and pressure on drainage systems;
• lowering neighbourhood temperatures and providing shade;
• storing carbon and supporting climate mitigation;
• stabilizing soils and reducing erosion;
• filtering air and supporting public health;
• providing habitat and ecological connectivity;
• strengthening resilience to drought, heat, storms and flooding;
• supporting cultural, educational, recreational and landscape values.

9. The Fifteen Commitments: A Progressive Method Adapted to British Columbia

The Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities are not a collection of obligations that must be fully and immediately implemented.

They constitute a common, voluntary, progressive and evolving roadmap structured around five complementary stages:

10. Saanich: A Concrete Example of British Columbia’s Municipal Possibilities

The District of Saanich already possesses several complementary policies, strategies and bylaws that could provide a substantial foundation for progressive implementation of the Declaration.

Its framework demonstrates that recognition of the rights and intrinsic value of the Tree need not begin with the creation of an entirely new municipal system. It may begin by connecting, clarifying and strengthening instruments that already exist.

A Current Official Community Plan

Saanich adopted an updated Official Community Plan on May 7, 2024. The current municipal page states that the version in force includes amendments through February 2026.

The OCP provides the primary framework for growth and change and contains policies intended to manage land use, protect the natural environment, address climate change and guide infrastructure. It also designates development permit areas and guidelines dealing with, among other matters, protection of the natural environment.

An Urban Forest Strategy and a Measurable Canopy Target

Saanich Council approved an updated Urban Forest Strategy in 2024. The strategy establishes a long-term vision and a target of 44 per cent canopy cover by 2064.

The strategy is designed to operate in concert with the Official Community Plan, the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, climate action and other municipal priorities. It supplies a structured basis for protecting, renewing and managing the urban forest over time.

Saanich has stated that its Urban Forest Strategy and Biodiversity Conservation Strategy were informed through engagement with the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council. This institutional context matters: any future municipal process concerning the Declaration should preserve government-to-government respect and should not treat First Nations governments or rights holders as ordinary stakeholders.

A Biodiversity Conservation Strategy

On June 17, 2024, Saanich Council endorsed an Environmental Policy Framework and a Biodiversity Conservation Strategy.

The municipal presentation states that the strategy contains seven theme areas and more than 130 actions to be implemented incrementally over ten years, with monitoring and reporting back to Council.

This provides an existing method of progressive implementation closely compatible with the logic of the Fifteen Commitments: a long-term roadmap, staged action, monitoring, public stewardship and regular institutional reporting.

A Detailed Tree Protection Bylaw

Saanich’s Tree Protection Bylaw, 2014, No. 9272 expressly relies upon sections 8(3)(c) and 50 to 52 of the Community Charter.

The bylaw regulates the alteration, cutting, damaging and removal of protected trees through a permit process. It identifies protected and significant trees, governs tree-cutting permits, provides for replacement trees and security, establishes tree-protection measures, authorizes inspection and creates offences.

The bylaw therefore already demonstrates many of the legal instruments through which several Commitments may be implemented: identification, permits, protection zones, arboricultural assessment, replacement, security, enforcement and recognition of significant trees.

A Bylaw Update Underway in 2026

As of June 10, 2026, Saanich’s official page states that the municipality is updating its Tree Protection Bylaw. The update is intended to simplify and clarify administration, sustain the urban forest, retain high-value trees, address regulatory gaps and align the bylaw with the Urban Forest Strategy and Official Community Plan.

Saanich also explains that the review is driven in part by provincial housing legislation associated with Bills 44, 46 and 47, which changes how housing is planned and built and therefore affects how trees can be managed on development sites. This illustrates the need to reconcile canopy protection with the housing uses and densities that provincial law requires municipalities to permit.

The municipality further recognizes that a tree bylaw cannot apply at full strength to all activities on Agricultural Land Reserve lands and cannot override provincial forestry, utility or agricultural regimes. These jurisdictional limits must remain visible in any future implementation framework.

The same page states that the project is moving toward canopy-cover-based outcomes associated with the 44 per cent target, and that drafting, testing and legal review are expected to continue through fall 2026.

What Adoption Could Add to Saanich’s Existing Framework

Saanich would not be starting from nothing. The Declaration and the Fifteen Commitments could provide a common framework through which existing instruments are connected and made more legible to residents, decision-makers and future councils.

In particular, official adoption could:

• place the intrinsic value of the Tree alongside its ecological and infrastructure functions;
• connect the Official Community Plan, Urban Forest Strategy, Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Tree Protection Bylaw within a single institutional roadmap;
• support a formal implementation timetable and periodic public reporting;
• provide a framework for recognizing Guardian Trees while preserving the existing category of Significant Trees;
• create an Assembly of the Tree to organize ongoing dialogue among council, staff, professionals and residents, while arranging any participation by First Nations governments or rights holders through invitation, consent and forms acceptable to them;
• strengthen the intergenerational dimension of canopy, biodiversity and natural-asset management;
• make clear that progressive implementation uses existing legal instruments rather than claiming that a resolution alone rewrites municipal law.

The Saanich example nevertheless demonstrates that a British Columbia municipality can possess the legal powers, planning instruments, administrative structures and policy maturity needed to consider official adoption seriously and implement it progressively.

11. Official Adoption Requires the Declaration to Be Named and Identified

A municipality remains entirely free to draft and adopt its own principles concerning tree protection.

General ideas concerning the value of trees, canopy protection, biodiversity, natural assets or climate adaptation are not reserved exclusively to the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.

However, two different approaches must be distinguished.

Canada’s Copyright Act reserves to the copyright owner, among other rights, the right to reproduce the work or any substantial part of it.

It also recognizes the author’s right to the integrity of the work and, where reasonable in the circumstances, the right to be associated with the work by name.

Removing the name of the Declaration while retaining its official wording cannot therefore be regarded as a normal procedure for officially adopting it.

The legal characterization of any particular reproduction depends upon the exact wording used, its extent and the surrounding circumstances.

Regardless of the intellectual-property question, wording detached from the Declaration’s title and official framework does not constitute recognized adherence to the Declaration.

12. A Simple Procedure for British Columbia Municipalities

1. Contact La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus

   The municipality or a member of council establishes initial contact with the organization officially carrying and stewarding the Declaration.

2. Organize a Preliminary Discussion

   A meeting provides an opportunity to present the Declaration, the Fifteen Commitments, the Assembly of the Tree, the proposed International Convention on Tree Rights, the International Register of Signatory Authorities, the legal scope of adoption and the arrangements for progressive implementation.

3. Review the Applicable Municipal Framework

   Municipal staff identify the plans, policies, programs, bylaws, permits, committees and budgetary instruments already compatible with the initiative. For a British Columbia municipality this review should include, as relevant, the Community Charter, Local Government Act, incorporation instruments, Official Community Plan, zoning bylaw, development permit areas, tree bylaw, climate plan, biodiversity strategy, asset-management framework and regional relationships.

4. Engage Relevant First Nations and Territorial Partners Appropriately

   The municipality determines, with legal and relationship-based care, what early dialogue or participation is appropriate with First Nations whose territories, rights, interests or knowledge may be relevant. Participation in an Assembly of the Tree should occur by invitation and consent, without treating Indigenous governments as ordinary stakeholders or transferring Crown constitutional obligations to the municipality.

5. Have the Proposal Reviewed by the Corporate Officer and Legal Counsel

   The proposed resolution is adapted to the municipality’s status, procedure bylaw and statutory powers. The review distinguishes institutional adoption from later regulatory, planning, budgetary or enforcement measures and identifies any matters requiring a bylaw, public hearing, permit, provincial approval or additional consultation.

6. Jointly Adopt Both Texts

   Council adopts the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights and the Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities. The documents should be precisely identified and, where municipal procedure permits, attached to the resolution.

7. Authorize Signature and Transmit the Decision

   The authorized representative signs the documents, and the municipality transmits its official instrument of adoption to La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus. Following verification, the authority may be entered in the International Register of Signatory Authorities.

8. Establish a Realistic Implementation Timetable

   The municipality identifies initial priorities, responsible departments, participating partners, available resources, indicators, public-reporting arrangements and the sequence in which policies, programs, bylaw reviews and planning measures will be considered.

13. A Legally Accessible and Politically Ambitious Path

14. Official Sources and Reference Texts

Universal Declaration of Tree Rights and Municipal Adoption

• Understanding the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights
• Official Framework of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights
• Local Authorities and the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights: Principles, Procedure and Legal Scope
• The Fifteen Commitments of Local and Regional Authorities — Official English Text
• Resolution No. 2026-06-111 adopted by Terrasse-Vaudreuil

Canadian and British Columbia Law

• Constitution Act, 1867 — Section 92
• Community Charter
• Local Government Act
• Local government council and board procedures
• Local government bylaw adoption process
• Official community plans for local governments
• Development permit areas
• Climate-action and natural-asset resources for local governments
• Canada’s Copyright Act — Section 3
• Canada’s Copyright Act — Section 14.1

District of Saanich

• Saanich Official Community Plan
• Saanich Urban Forest Strategy and Biodiversity Conservation Strategy — official page
• Saanich Urban Forest Strategy
• Saanich Biodiversity Conservation Strategy
• Saanich Tree Protection Bylaw and 2026 update
• Tree Protection Bylaw, 2014, No. 9272
• Saanich tree-cutting permit information

Official institutional text

Issued by La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus

This article is an official institutional text of La Compagnie des Papillons Bleus, the French non-profit organization that officially represents, carries, safeguards and develops the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights and its international institutional framework.

It is published under the authority of its President and of the author and initiator of the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights.