Selection of Protected Sites

What is a Protected Areas Strategy? (NWT)

• A guide to make balanced decisions in identifying, establishing and protecting significant natural and cultural areas using best available knowledge.
• A set of shared goals, principles, processes and tools to support conservation and resource management in regional or local land use planning.

Why do we need a Protected Areas Strategy?

• • To protect and maintain areas of land and water with special natural and cultural values, and to protect biodiversity.
  • To provide a context for specific action items and commitments to facilitate the establishment of protected areas.

What will a Protected Areas Strategy Do?

• • It will facilitate representation of the full range of natural and cultural values in protected areas.
  • It will provide a more clearly defined context for resource development and conservation decisions, by designating various categories of protected areas with clear distinctions regarding resource activities.
  • It will reinforce the leadership role of communities, regional organizations and/or land claim bodies in land and water use management.
  • It will help alleviate concerns that future resource development will compromise the protection of special natural areas.
  • It will help focus attention on the need for marine and freshwater protected areas.
  • It will promote a more coordinated approach among agencies responsible for protected areas.

The Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy, 1999

Targets (BC)

• to deliver an expanded and integrated system of protected areas that protect 12% of the province by the year 2000.
• to systematically use biophysical (conservation), cultural heritage and recreation inventories to identify gaps in the existing system of protected areas, identify areas of interest to fill gaps, evaluate and rank the significance of these areas in light of the Protected Area Strategy goal and policy and recommend them for future study and potential protection.

A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia, 1993

The 2022 BC Premier’s Mandate to Nathan Cullen, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship (Fisheries)

• Partnering with the federal government, industry, and communities, and working with Indigenous Peoples, lead the work to achieve the Nature Agreement’s goals of 30% protection of BC’s land base by 2030, including Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.

COP15 Targets (UN)

December 19, 2022, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a number of targets. Targets 11, 2, 3 12 relating to the Protection of 30% of Nature are summarized as follows:

• Restore, maintain and enhance nature’s contributions to people, including ecosystem functions and services.
• Ensure that by 2030 at least 30 per cent of terrestrial and inland water, and of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are effectively conserved and managed and at least 30 per cent of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration.
• Significantly increase the area and quality and connectivity of, access to, and benefits in urban and densely populated areas sustainably.

GOALS (BC)

Two fundamental goals:

• Protect viable, representative examples of the natural diversity of the province, which are representative of the major terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems, the characteristic habitats, hydrology and landforms, and the characteristic backcountry recreational and cultural heritage values of each ecosection
• Protect the special natural, cultural heritage and recreational features of the province, including rare and endangered species and critical habitats; outstanding or unique botanical, zoological, geological and paleontological features; outstanding or fragile cultural heritage features; and outstanding outdoor recreational features.

A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia, 1993

STEPS (BC)

Six major steps:

• Get started
• Describe ecosections
• Identify gaps and areas of interest
• Evaluate areas
• Identify broad land use and economic considerations
• Recommend study areas

A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia, 1993

General Planning Process for Protected Areas (NWT)

Steps:

• Identify priority areas of interest
• Prepare and review protected area proposal at regional level
• Review and submit proposal for candidate protected area status
• Consider and where necessary apply interim protection for candidate area
• Evaluate candidate area
• Seek formal establishment of protected area
• Approve and designate protected area
• Implement, monitor and review protected area

The Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy, 1999

Number of Divisions for Regional Decision Making

British Columbia divides the province into 110 discrete geographical areas, 100 terrestrial and 10 marine areas. A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia, 1993

Quebec also uses a zoning concept treating developed areas differently than remote areas and the boreal forest wilderness. Strategic Guidelines for Québec Protected Areas — We Take Growth Seriously

Levels of Analysis (BC)

For conservation purposes there are two broad levels of analysis:

• The course filter analysis to determine to what extent the current system of protected areas represents the province’s major ecosystems and their characteristic biophysical elements (broad element categories for analysis including physical biophysical elements (broad element categories for analysis include physical landscape, hydrological, habitats, fish and wildlife species, etc.)
• Fine filter analysis uses a variety of different criterion identifying rare and otherwise special biophysical elements which need protection, but which may not be captured within the larger, representative areas.

Priority should be given to identify large, representative areas and to filling major gaps and/or gaps most threatened of vulnerable.

A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia, 1993 pg. 31

Principles for Selecting Protected Areas (BC)

Goal 1 : Protect viable, representative examples of the natural diversity of the province:

• Representativeness : within each ecosection, protected areas should collectively contain representative examples of the full range of ecosystems and their characteristic habitats, animals, plants, hydrology, landforms and cultural heritage and backcountry recreational values. Protected areas should be selected to fill gaps in representation.
• Naturalness: To protect natural, biological … values, protected areas should be located in areas that have experienced a minimal degree of human development and disturbance
• Viability: is the ability of protected areas and the values protected within them, to be maintained in perpetuity. Protected areas should be selected, located and designed to establish a network in which the individual and collective ecological viability and integrity of the area can be sustained over the long term. Viability is assessed in terms of size, shape, adjacency and watershed integrity
• Diversity: Diversity is a measure of the variety, concentration and/or abundance of values in a given geographic area. Protected areas should be selected to include those areas with the greatest diversity of representative natural, … values as a means to optimize each protected area’s contribution to the protection of our natural, biological, … heritage diversity ….
• Vulnerability: vulnerability is the fragility of the resource, its compatibility with human use, or the urgency to protect the resource due to imminent development of impending resource conflicts. … Priority should be given to studying, identifying and protecting those ecosystems, species … threatened by or vulnerable to human activities.
• Opportunities for public use and appreciation: Protected areas should include those values that encourage people to explore the province and to learn about the value of protecting British Columbia’s natural and cultural heritage diversity.
• Significance for scientific research: Selection of protected areas should consider the value of an area as a natural and/or cultural benchmark or gene pool for long-term scientific research.

Goal 2 : Protect the special natural, cultural heritage … features of the province

Step 1 : Identify special features. Special natural features are:

• rare species, subspecies, populations and habitats,
• biologically exceptional sites (important seasonal or migratory breeding, feeding, resting or wintering concentrations of animals; sites or high species richness or high endemism sites of species at the extremes of their ranges, highly productive habitats, micro-climate anomalies and the biggest, best or smallest)
• physically exceptional sites (unique landforms, physical features, hydrologic features, soils or geology)
• paleontological resources (fossils)
• remnants (representative sites too small or fragmented to be captured within the representative protected areas)

Step 2 : Evaluate and Rate Special Features listed in Goal 1, and rarity, scarcity and uniqueness

• sites are also to be assessed for educational value as outdoor classrooms in terms of contrast (are they significantly different), animal behaviour to be seen, accessibility, rarity, mystery and superlatives (relating to size and pristine qualities) (126)

A Protected Areas Strategy for British Columbia, 1993 pg. 49

Guide for Establishing the Natural Reserve System, Australia

• Does the area have ecological importance
  • contain a high diversity or abundance of ecosystems or species?
  • represent a centre of endemism or refugia?
  • contain areas significant for migratory species?
  • contain habitat for rare or threatened species?
  • contain one or more areas which are a biologically functional, self-sustaining ecological unit?
• select to ensure that a ‘core’ area is protected with an effective buffer and the provision of adequate connectivity (i.e. linkages/corridors) to other protected areas, or other areas which are managed sustainable for their natural resources?
  • of sufficient extent to ensure that ecological functioning and species composition will be maintained.
  • delineated to minimize ‘boundary-to-area’ ratio,
  • designed to consider good neighbour policy and implications for on-going management,
  • designed to minimize the impact of key threatening processes.

Australian Guidelines for Establishing the National Reserve System, 1999

Common Features of Protected Areas (NWT)

This Strategy recognizes that any protected area:

• has clear boundaries
• is managed to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems
• is established and managed by a legally empowered land management authority
• provides protection for land-based areas with special cultural values and traditional harvesting activities, and
• can accommodate development when compatible with the values being protected, except in core representative areas

The Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy, 1999

Who Will Benefit From this Strategy? (NWT)

• Communities, Aboriginal governments and organizations, regional organizations and/or land claim bodies… will be supported in meeting their long-term protection goals for lands, waters and air critical to the health of their economies and cultures.
• Resource-based industries and tourism interests will obtain greater clarity about land status, land use access and development options.
• Environmental interests will see significant progress towards national and international commitments to protecting representative examples of the… natural regions.
• Present and future generations… will benefit from the ecological, cultural and economic values protected today.

The Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy, 1999

Management – Using Standard Categories for Classifying Protected Areas

Over the past three decades, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has developed and refined an international system of categories for reporting on protected areas at the global level. Protected areas are managed mainly for:

• science
• wilderness protection
• ecosystem protection and recreation
• conservation of specific natural features
• conservation through management intervention
• landscape/seascape conservation or recreation
• the sustainable use of natural resources

Canadian Guidebook for the Application of IUCN Protected Area Categories 2008 Pg 5 Canadian Council on Ecological Areas

Management (Australia)

• Management Precautionary Principle: The absence of scientific certainty is not a reason to postpone measures to establish protected areas which contribute to a comprehensive, adequate and representative national reserve system.
• Management – Landscape context: The protected area system should maximize biodiversity conservation outcomes through the application of scientifically robust reserve design principles.
• Management: … regional biodiversity conservation requires a mix of management strategies. These would include statutory protected areas and incentives that encourage voluntary partnerships for off-reserve conservation. Public and private protected areas would include covenanting arrangements, as well as conservation management measures and guidelines for ecologically sustainable land management.

Australian Guidelines for Establishing the National Reserve System, 1999

Outcomes (Australia)

• A significant increase in the area reserved that contributes to a comprehensive, adequate, and representative system of protected areas, with a focus on those regions where ecosystem representation is lowest.
• The establishment of protected areas which are dedicated to long term conservation across a range of land tenures including lands owned or managed by Indigenous people and other private lands, particularly where acquisition through purchase is not feasible.
• Plans of management … for all [sites] as soon as possible ….
• Government, community-based, and private landholder actions initiated to acquire and manage priority ecosystems for biodiversity conservation.
• Improved public awareness of the role and value of protected areas, and of implementing a range of conservation management measures to protect biodiversity.
• Identification of best management practices for protected area management on public and private lands.
• Development of a collaborative … database.
• Improved knowledge of ecosystem distribution, components and threatening processes in high priority or poorly known regions.

Australian Guidelines for Establishing the National Reserve System, 1999