Conservation Assessment for Southern Canada
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i CONSERVATION ASSESSMENT FOR SOUTHERN CANADA ii Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). 2018. Conservation Assessment for Southern Canada. vii+137 pp. NCC staff Michael Bradstreet, Andrea Hebb and Dan Kraus (in alphabetical order) contributed to the concept, design, analysis and writing of this report. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors thank all of the partners and agencies that provided data used in the assessment. In addition, thanks to NCC staff and to Karen Beazley, Dalhousie University; Louise Gratton, Two Countries, One Forest Society; Dave Howerter, Ducks Unlimited Canada; Cathy Nielson, Environment and Climate Change Canada; Mike Patterson, International Institute for Sustainable Development; Dave Phillips, formerly Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment; Justina Ray, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada; and Oscar Venter, University of Northern British Columbia who reviewed the assessment and provided valuable suggestions for improvement. Allan Edelsparre, University of Toronto, provided guidance and support for the statistical analysis. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................................................................................... ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................................... v BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................................................................... 1 The Loss of Canada’s Biodiversity ................................................................................................................................ 1 Need for a Conservation Assessment .......................................................................................................................... 1 Goals of the Assessment ................................................................................................................................................... 4 STUDY AREA............................................................................................................................................................................... 5 METHODS .................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Data Assembly ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Biodiversity ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Species Richness (Criterion B1) ....................................................................................................................... 12 Species at Risk (Criterion B2) ............................................................................................................................ 12 Globally Rare Species (Criterion B3) .............................................................................................................. 13 Species of High Conservation Responsibility (Criterion B4) ................................................................ 13 Unique and Distinctive Species (Criterion B5) ........................................................................................... 14 Key Biodiversity Areas (Criterion B6) ........................................................................................................... 14 Intactness (Criterion B7) ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Ecosystem Distinctiveness (Criterion B8) .................................................................................................... 17 Threat ............................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Human Footprint (Criterion T1) ...................................................................................................................... 19 Watershed Stress (Criterion T2) ...................................................................................................................... 19 Conservation and Habitat Risk Index (Criterion T3) ............................................................................... 21 Fragmentation (Criterion T4) ............................................................................................................................ 21 Land Use Change (Criterion T5) ....................................................................................................................... 21 Rate of Climate Change (Criterion T6) ........................................................................................................... 22 Lack of Water (Criterion T7) .............................................................................................................................. 23 Conservation Response ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Protected Areas (Criterion R1) ......................................................................................................................... 25 Representation (Criterion R2) .......................................................................................................................... 26 NCC’s Assessment of the Criteria and Measures to Identify Important Ecoregions ............................. 26 Statistical Analysis ...................................................................................................................................................... 26 Scoring.............................................................................................................................................................................. 27 Classifying Ecoregions by Biodiversity and Threat Values ........................................................................ 28 RESULTS.................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Statistical Analysis ........................................................................................................................................................... 29 Biodiversity .................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Threats ............................................................................................................................................................................. 32 Final Suite of Criteria and Measures .................................................................................................................... 33 Ecoregion Scores for Biodiversity, Threat and Conservation Response ................................................... 34 Biodiversity .................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Threat ............................................................................................................................................................................... 39 Conservation Response ............................................................................................................................................. 43 Protected Areas (Criterion R1) ......................................................................................................................... 43 iv Representation (Criterion R2) .......................................................................................................................... 44 Identifying Important Ecoregions ............................................................................................................................. 47 DISCUSSION AND APPLICATIONS .................................................................................................................................. 53 Identifying and Protecting Important Areas for Conservation ..................................................................... 54 Species at Risk Recovery ............................................................................................................................................... 55 Capacity Building .............................................................................................................................................................. 55 Monitoring Our Progress: A Living Conservation Assessment...................................................................... 56 Looking Forward .............................................................................................................................................................. 56 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Appendix A – Summary of Ecoregions 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