Boreal Forest Conservation Framework

Rationale for the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework

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The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, adopted December 1, 2003 by the Boreal Leadership Council, sets out a shared vision to sustain the ecological and cultural integrity of the Canadian boreal region, in perpetuity. Its goal is to conserve the cultural, natural and sustainable economic values of the entire Canadian boreal region by:

• protecting at least 50% of the region in a network of large interconnected protected areas, and
  
  
• supporting sustainable communities through world-leading ecosystem-based resource management practices and leading edge stewardship practices in the remaining landscape.

Why do we need to conserve Canada's boreal region?

Canada's boreal region, a vast complex of interconnected landscapes of forest, wetlands, mountains, rivers and lakes is still largely ecologically intact, and with the Amazon Rainforest and Siberian Taiga is one of the largest intact natural regions remaining on earth. Its vegetation, waters and soils represent one of the world's most important air purifiers, sources of fresh water and buffers against climate change. It is home to hundreds of wildlife species, including some of the world's largest remaining populations of woodland caribou, bears, wolves and lynx. One in three of North America's songbirds and three in four continental waterfowl rely on Canada's boreal region each year.

What supports the balanced approach of the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework?

The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework represents a bold new vision that promotes a conservation approach for the entire boreal region. Protecting the integrity of the boreal region over the long-term is key to the sustainability and well-being of communities that rely on it, and the ecological values it provides. Implementing this vision will position Canada as the world leader in large-scale forest and wetlands conservation and management, through collaborative, pro-active planning. The opportunity it represents is unparalleled.

In 1999, the Canadian Senate issued a report recommending a long-range goal for the boreal of 20% in strict protected areas, 60% in conservation areas where maintaining ecological values was the primary goal, and 20% in intensive development. The Framework simplifies the spirit of the Senate recommendation by redistributing the 60% identified for conservation equally between the protected areas and sustainable land use goals. This allows for greater flexibility in decision-making on the protected areas side and recognizes that truly sustainable land use and best practices will be needed in the intervening lands and waters of the boreal for meaningful conservation.

Recent research in conservation biology and landscape ecology supports the kind of large-scale conservation planning anticipated by the Framework. Avoiding the negative effects of habitat fragmentation on sensitive wildlife populations requires that at least 30-50% of original habitat be conserved. Maintaining all ecological functions, natural services and cultural values is likely to require much more than 50% of a landscape be conserved, suggesting that a high degree of protection and careful management of the remaining lands and waters is necessary. Further, in the boreal forest, where fires and other large-scale natural disturbances are important components of ecosystem function, it is particularly important to plan for, and over, very large areas.

Canada's boreal region already has examples of large-scale land use decision-making on the scale of the Framework. The Innu in Labrador, the Dehcho in the Northwest Territories, and the Poplar River First Nation in Manitoba are each developing conservation visions for their lands using traditional ecological knowledge, the guidance of elders, and application of conservation biology consistent with vision of the Boreal Framework.

The Framework recognizes that decisions about conservation in the boreal are choices that society must set for itself. Science and traditional ecological knowledge can and should inform the debate but, at the end of the day, society must set its own goals. The Framework sets a goal for conserving Canada's magnificent boreal region, and invites like-minded leaders to work toward it. Along the way, through continued scientific research, application of traditional ecological knowledge and appropriate land-use planning exercises, we will all learn much more about boreal ecology, peoples and economies, and how they inter-relate. Our vision will evolve accordingly.

December 1, 2003
Canadian Boreal Initiative
Phone: 613-230-4739
info@borealcanada.ca
www.borealcanada.ca