Speakers
Jocelyn Lessard
General Director
Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières
Website: www.fqcf.coopConference theme:
SIMULTANEOUS FORUM: Workers and producers - forestry, fishery, manufacturing, energy
"I am participating in the International Summit of Cooperatives because…"
“I am participating in the International Summit of Cooperatives because I want to help promote the cooperative model, as well as learn from the notable cooperative leaders who will be in attendance.”
Biography
Jocelyn Lessard is a forest engineer by training. He graduated from the faculty of forestry at Université Laval in 1981, and since 1999 he has been the managing director of the Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières (FQCF).
In his role as a representative of forestry cooperatives, he sits on several boards of directors in the forestry community and the Quebec cooperative movement, including the Conseil québécois de la coopération et de la mutualité and the Société de coopération pour le développement international (SOCODEVI). He is also a member of a number of cooperatives and is a director of the Coopérative funéraire des Deux-Rives.
Before joining the FQCF, he worked primarily in private forest development in Quebec, holding the position of managing director with the Agence de mise en valeur de la forêt privée de l'Estrie (AMFE) and Aménagement forestier coopératif de Wolfe, a cooperative group of lumber producers. He also spent 4 years working on an international cooperative initiative for SOCODEVI in Ivory Coast, where he managed a project to help form a cooperative network for forestry workers.
About the Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières (FQCF)
The Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières (FQCF) is a cooperative group that represents a total of 40 forestry worker cooperatives from all over Quebec. As of 2009, the FQCF had 2,700 member workers, employed 3,500 people, and generated more than $250 million in total revenue. Its mission is to build a framework for cooperative development in order to provide, secure, and create stable and meaningful jobs for its member workers, and to ensure the survival and development of its member businesses.
The primary areas of economic activity of Quebec forestry cooperatives include:
- Production of forest seedlings
- Silviculture (land preparation, planting, brush cutting, selective cutting)
- Harvesting (forest road system, cutting, hauling, measuring)
- Lumber transport
- Primary and secondary processing
- Harvesting of forest biomass and energy sales
- Marketing of non-timber forest products (small fruit, medicinal plants, food plants)
- Technical work (inventory, forestry planning)
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