Intact Forest Landscapes and Conservation Planning in Canada

Prepared by: Ryan ChengGlobal Forest Watch Canada

Outline

• GFWC Intact Forest Landscapes reports – Atlas of Canada’s Intact Forest Landscapes– Nova Scotia’s Intact Forest Landscapes

• Intact Forest Landscapes and Conservation Values– Overview Conservation Values Index – Province of Alberta example:

• Key Ecological Values• Key Threats

– Example of Threats around Protected Areas

• Introduction to Global Forest Watch Canada– Began mapping IFL in Canada in ~ 2000, based on

earlier work by Global Forest Watch Russia

• To support the stewardship and conservation of Canada's remaining forests, by providing decision makers and civil society with timely, accurate information on their location, state, and change. In particular, this mission includes monitoring development activities using sophisticated GIS and remote sensing technologies.

• National datasets we create:– Cumulative Access [Anthropogenic Disturbance to ~2006]

– Change Analysis [~1990 – 2000]– National Hydropower Reservoirs [2007]– Intact Forest Landscapes [up to ~2006]

– Other datasets:• Industrial Tenures (for example: forest tenures/mills)• First Nations Lands

GFWC National Intact Forest Landscapes Reports

– Large intact forest landscapes– Forest landscape fragments– Intact forest landscapes

50 000 ha 10 000 ha 5 000 ha

GFWC Intact Forest Landscape Mapping Methodology

• How do we map Intact Forest Landscapes?– Based on GFW Russia Methodology, binary classification as

intact/disturbed. We first assume that all forests are intact.

• Existing datasets– Eliminate existing anthropogenic disturbances based on

readily available datasets (for example: roads, reservoirs)

• Landsat data• Eliminate all visible anthropogenic disturbances seen medium

resolution satellite imagery (for example: clearcuts, oil well sites)• Fire was not included as anthropogenic change• Disturbances were buffered by 500m – 1000m

GFWC Regional Intact Forest Landscapes Reports

• We map smaller Intact Forest Landscapes to determine where “core” intact forests exists and focus conservation efforts around central Intact Forest Landscapes

Global Forest Watch Key Ecological Values Reports

• High conservation values vs. highest threat– Examples of conservation values datasets– Examples of threats datasets [Alberta]

Process of choosing conservation values

• Determining priority areas within IFLs– How do we choose values

• EXPERT PANEL [DELPHI TECHNIQUE]– How good is the product?

• Depends on: – What datasets are available– The scale/coarseness of the data– Who chooses the conservation values– Geographical boundaries– Political opportunities– How the conservation values are ranked

» [show a comparison of the effects of changing conservation values ranking]

Potential Conservation Values• List of datasets that we have available in Canada:

– Intact Forest Lanscapes– Caribou/ caribou habitat – Carbon storage: Terrestrial (Soil Organic Carbon)– Assessment of Representation (AoR)– Aquatic density– Rainforests (Boreal)– Free-flowing major rivers– Proximity/adjacency to existing Protected Areas– Old growth forests (Forest age)– Wetlands – Carbon sinks (Net Biome Productivity)– Tree height– Focal species: Grizzly – Focal species: Wolverine– Species Diversity

Intact Forest Landscapes in

Alberta

Example of High Conservation

Value: Old Growth Forests

Conservation Values (Intact

Forest Landscapes)

Example of Threat: Recent

Anthropogenic Disturbance Surrounding

Protected Areas

Example of Threat: Energy

Developments (Tar Sands)

Example of Threat: Energy

Developments (Petroleum and

Natural Gas Wells )

Example of Threat: Forestry

Concessions

Threats Index

Intersection of Ecological Values and

Threats

Conservation Values for all

Forested Regions of

Alberta: Wetlands

Conservation Values for all

Forested Regions of

Alberta: Shoreline

Conservation Values for all

Forested Regions of

Alberta: Species

Diversity

Conservation Values for all

Forested Regions of

Alberta

Key Ecological ValueNumber of Categories Ranking

Relative Weight

Scaled Weight [max = 1]

Soil Organic Carbon 5 1 to 5 1 0.025Net Biome Productivity 3 1 to 5 1 0.025Potenitial Old Growth Forests 1 1 to 5 1 0.025Species Diversity 5 1 to 5 2 0.05Focal Species 1 1 to 5 1 0.025Aquatic Density per Watershed 5 1 to 5 1 0.025Wetlands 5 1 to 5 1 0.025

Conservation Values (Intact

Forest Landscapes)

Example of a Regional Study in Alberta: Lower Athabasca Regional Plan

• Land use plan for an area of Alberta undergoing extensive development

• Identify lands which would allow for 20% of the region to be protected

• Regional Study in Alberta: Conservation Values

• Regional Study in Alberta: Threats Index

• Regional Study in Alberta: Conservation Values vs. Threats

Conservation Values and Protected Areas in Canada

• Is the allocation of lands and freshwaters to protected areas achieving naturalness, presumably a key conservation objective of protected areas?– Definition of naturalness

Conservation Values and Protected Areas in Canada

1) Anthropogenic access within Canada’s Protected Areas is approximately 31% of that within all of Canada (5.3% versus 17.6%), meaning that Canada’s protected areas are much more “natural” than Canada as a whole.

2) Only 5.3% of Canada’s protected areas are anthropogenically accessed, compared to that of surrounding buffer areas at 48.6%: buffer areas surrounding protected areas are almost 10 times more accessed than the protected areas they surround.

Lessons for GFWC

• Intact Forest Landscapes have been, in Canada, a powerful but insufficient , conservation advocacy tool.

• There has been urgent need to:– Map smaller IFLs than 50,000 ha– Identify high priority sites for conservation within

IFLs– Identify both industrial near-future threats to IFLs

and political opportunities to conserve IFLs.