Rob Friberg, a UBC Forestry alum from the class of 1990, knew that he wanted to make an impact supporting sustainable forest services from a young age. Looking at what he has accomplished so far, he is most proud of the forest plans and projects he has been a part of, from here in British Columbia, to Chile and the Congo.
His story began in rural Vancouver Island where he grew up on the family’s woodlot, enjoying outdoor activities and spending his weekends skidding Douglas Fir logs and running them through a portable saw mill with his dad. His childhood experiences, along with the realization of the importance of BC’s forest resources and wanting to influence their sustainable management, led Rob to pursue a degree in Forest Resource Management at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry.
Rob’s fondest memories of the Faculty are of two of his professors – Dr. Hamish Kimmins and Dr. John Worrall. Dr. Kimmins’ ecology class and Dr. Worrall’s field excursions were memorable because the professors made a point of being interested in their students and connecting with them. Dr. Worrall’s field excursions also gave students the chance to connect with him and other students in a forest environment.
After graduation, Rob’s next step was to explore some of the world’s forests, so after an eight-month position with Weyerhaeuser he traveled to Kenya and Uganda visiting agro-forests and forest ecosystem restoration projects with a fellow UBC student. From there he traveled to Sweden, Denmark and England to gain a wider perspective by observing the different international forest practices. Many of the people he visited while traveling were made through his time at UBC, either fellow students that had been employed abroad or exchange students. Rob believes that “it is important for students to realize that if they make friends with exchange students, they will have options to travel and contacts and friendly faces to meet them along the way”.
After returning to Canada and working for Weyerhaeuser in Okanagan Falls for fifteen years, Rob found travel calling him again. He made one of his most difficult career decisions – leaving a secure, comfortable job with people he liked to do something uncertain and highly unpredictable. That uncertain and unpredictable move was to volunteer with Keys International in Chile, who were partnered with the Chilean Ministry of Forests and International Model Forest Network, the latter is based in Ottawa. His role was to support community based sustainable forestry initiatives.
This experience led Rob to start consulting and in 2009 he founded a consulting firm, New Forests Outlook Ltd., with Natural Resources Canada as his very first contract. Since then he has worked on a wide variety of contracts for different organizations, from the Canadian International Development Agency to the Model Forest Strategic Planning Process in Cuba. Currently, he is working on sustainable forest management and conservation projects funded through the Forest Carbon Markets with two focus areas: BC coastal communities and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rob’s role is to support project design and ensure projects result in positive benefits for climate mitigation for local communities and for biodiversity.
Rob is very happy with the career forestry has given him. When asked if he has ever thought of what other jobs he could have chosen, he believes he’s “hit it pretty well with Forestry”! The only other careers he could see himself doing would have been a forest ecologist or a part time bush pilot, the latter mostly for the excitement and the chance to explore many remote BC locations. In terms of where he sees himself heading, he believes in “effective evaluation of social environmental impact on policy and programs and continual improvement through adaptive sustainable forest management and sustainable communities. I’d like to be making an impact in this area, innovative policy and program planning here and internationally.”
Looking back at his alma matter, he believes that being a UBC alumnus is an important connection to his educational roots and a window for networking with forestry colleagues and expertise at UBC. For current students and new graduates, he has the following advice:
“Be clear on your personal career purpose. Someone said it well at a recent CIF meeting – try to avoid doing something because someone else is doing it. Think of the end goal and what you’d like to be doing 30 to 40 years from now”.
From Branchlines June 2013