A new study shows more than eight per cent of Kamloops-area jobs are tied to forestry.

The study was done for the BC Council of Forest Industries, and president Susan Yurkovich says there are more than 20,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs tied to forestry in the Thompson-Okanagan, which represents 8.2 per cent of the region’s workforce.

“It helps us to be able to tell our story, it helps when we’re trying to think about policy changes and what the impacts of those might be. I think it’s important that this is a sector that has a long history of providing significant economic benefits, and we need to make sure we steward it well as we move forward to make sure that we continue to do that.”

The study also shows province-wide, there are more than 140,000 jobs tied to forestry which makes up just under six per cent of the workforce in B.C.

Meanwhile, with that data the council says it is equipped to highlight the need to address challenges industry at a convention in Vancouver this week.

Yurkovich says most issues are around declining timber harvests because of pine beetles, wildfires and other matters.

“We of course face continued protectionism from one of our key markets in the U.S., so that’s something that we deal with on an ongoing basis. It’s not a new challenge for our industry, sadly it’s something we’re very familiar with,” she says. “We have to address, in some places, a decreasing fibre supply. And looking for how we make sure our mills are fibred, and how we make sure our fibre is used to the highest use that we can possibly put it to.”

As the forestry convention in Vancouver began its second day, the provincial government this morning announced more than $11 million dollars that it says will support jobs and make some forested areas more productive.