International Applicants

A separate procedure exists for assessing the credentials of people applying to be registered as a Professional Forester who have graduated from a non-accredited forestry program. These applicants may be foreign-trained, or they may have graduated from a university program in Canada that is not accredited by the Canadian Forestry Accreditation Board (CFAB).

The procedure is applied consistently across Canada by each provincial association that belongs to the Canadian Federation of Professional Foresters Associations (CFPFA). It involves the assessment of an applicant's current education, training, and experience to determine the extent to which the competencies of the Certification Standards have been met.

Please review the detailed credential assessment process handbook that outlines the requirements and the application procedure to follow.

Under this application process, the applicant first contacts the professional association in the province where he or she wishes to practice professional forestry. Once admitted into the process, assessment of a candidate's credentials is undertaken by an independent panel of assessors in accordance with a national credential assessment process (described in the applicant handbook). The panel provides an assessment report to the provincial association, which then makes a decision about the membership application.

Professional Foresters and Professional Forest Engineers (from Quebec) may transfer to another province with relative ease because of common interprovincial standards for education and competencies. This is in line with a Mutual Recognition Agreement signed by the provincial professional foresters associations that belong to the Canadian Federation of Professional Foresters Associations (CFPFA) and Canada's Agreement on Internal Trade.