counting canada’s natural capital: assessing the real value of canada’s boreal ecosystems All cover photos: Garth Lenz Counting Canada’s Natural Capital: assessing the real value of canada’s boreal ecosystems About the Canadian Boreal Initiative The Canadian Boreal Initiative was created in response to both the opportunities and threats facing Canada’s Boreal region. Based in Ottawa, the CBI brings together a wide range of conservation organizations, First Nations, industry leaders and others to create new solutions for Boreal conservation and sustainable development. It supports scientific research to advance thinking on conservation-based planning for the Boreal region, and acts as a catalyst by supporting a variety of on-the-ground efforts across the Boreal by conservation groups, First Nations and others. In 2003 the CBI convened the Boreal Leadership Council, an extraordinary group of conservation organizations, First Nations and resource companies. In concert with the members of the council, the CBI created and launched the Boreal Forest Conservation Framework – a vision for the protection and sustainable development of Canada’s entire Boreal ecosystem. www.borealcanada.ca About the Pembina Institute The Pembina Institute is an independent, not-for-profit environmental . s i a policy research and education organization. Founded in Drayton Valley, ç n a r Alberta, the Pembina Institute has a multidisciplinary staff of more F n than thirty, with offices in Drayton Valley, Calgary, Edmonton,Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto. e e l b i The Pembina Institute’s major policy research and education programs are in the areas of sustainable n o p s energy, climate change, environmental governance, ecological fiscal reform, sustainability indicators, i d i and the environmental impacts of the energy industry. s s u www.pembina.org A Design: The Bytown Group (www.bytowngroup.com) Translation: Les Traductions St-François Printed on FSC paper. ISBN 0-9733409-3-2 COUNTING CANADA’S NATURAL CAPITAL: ASSESSING THE REAL VALUE OF CANADA’S BOREAL ECOSYSTEMS About the authors Mark Anielski Mark Anielski is an ecological economist, entrepreneur, Alberta Government in the ministries of Treasury, professor, author, and president of his own consulting Environment, and Forestry, Lands, and Wildlife, con- firm, Anielski Management Inc., which specializes in ducting economic analysis of environmental policies. measuring the sustainability and well-being of commu- From 1995 to 1999, he was part of Alberta Treasury’s nities and organizations. Since the early 1990s, Mark performance measurement team, which designed and has been pioneering the development of natural capital implemented Alberta’s internationally recognized per- accounting systems in Alberta and Canada and is cur- formance measurement system (Measuring Up) and rently a senior adviser to the Chinese Government on three-year government business planning process. green gross domestic product (GDP) accounting for Since leaving the Alberta Government in 1999, he China. He has considerable experience in public policy has dedicated his work life to developing alternative z n e L h t r a G analysis of natural resource, energy, royalty, and fiscal measures of economic progress, such as the US policy issues in both the public (Alberta Government) Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), the Alberta GPI and private (GPC—Government Policy Consultants) Sustainable Well-being Accounting System, Ecological sectors. His expertise is varied and broad; it includes Footprint Analysis, and other quality-of-life indicator accounting for sustainable development, natural systems. resource accounting, public policy analysis, business planning, and performance measurement. His new Genuine Wealth model, which provides an accounting framework for measuring and managing the From 2000 to 2003, he served on the National Round total human, social, and natural wealth of communities, Table on the Environment and the Economy and the is currently in development. Mark is president of the Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators Canadian Society for Ecological Economics, a Senior Steering Committee, which developed the first set of Fellow with the Oakland-based economic think-tank sustainable and environmental performance indicators Redefining Progress, and an associate of the Pembina for Canada. Mark teaches corporate social responsibility Institute for Appropriate Development. at the University of Alberta’s School of Business. He also teaches a course in sustainable economics at the Mark has a master’s degree in Forest Economics and Bainbridge Graduate Institute near Seattle—the first two bachelor’s degrees, one in Economics and the MBA program in sustainable business practices and other in Forestry, all from the University of Alberta. ethics. Prior to starting his own consulting practice, Mark lives in Edmonton with his wife, Jennifer, and Mark spent 14 years as senior policy adviser to the their two young daughters. PEMBINA INSTITUTE CANADIAN BOREAL INITIATIVE COUNTING CANADA’S NATURAL CAPITAL: ASSESSING THE REAL VALUE OF CANADA’S BOREAL ECOSYSTEMS Sara Wilson Sara has training in environmental economics from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Sara Wilson is an independent research and policy a background in economic applications such as cost- analyst who has worked as a consultant for over five benefit analysis and full cost accounting. For example, years. She specializes in the areas of socio-economic she has authored The Costs and Benefits of Sewage analysis of environmental data—notably ecosystem Treatment and Source Control for the Halifax Harbour valuation and full cost accounting techniques, public and The GPI Water Quality Accounts in Nova Scotia. policy development, ecological fiscal reform, and environmental management. She has compiled, ana- Sara has provided research and policy development lyzed, and developed social, economic, and environ- services for the National Round Table on the mental indicators for provincial accounting purposes, Environment and the Economy, the Pembina Institute and developed market and non-market valuations for Appropriate Development, Genuine Progress Index for ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration for Atlantic Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, and water quality. Sara has also developed z n e L h t r a G environmental policy alternatives, including initiatives Rainforest Solutions Project, the Canadian Boreal that address climate change, pollution prevention, Initiative, and the Green Budget Coalition. As a result, ecosystem conservation, and ecological fiscal reform. her work includes projects in the forestry, energy, fisheries, agriculture, and mining sectors in Canada. Sara was a lead author on the first provincial Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), namely the Alberta Sara has a master’s degree in Science in Forestry Sustainability Index—a set of social, environmental, (Mixed Boreal Forest Disturbance Ecology), a and economic accounts that evaluate the sustainability certificate in Economics and Policy Solutions for of Alberta’s natural, social, and human capital; and the Ecosystem Conservation, and a bachelor’s degree Nova Scotia GPI (i.e., The State of Nova Scotia’s (honours) in International Development Studies Forests: Ecological, Social and Economic Values and Environmental Geography. Sara currently lives of Nova Scotia’s Forests). She has also authored an in Victoria, BC, with her husband, Faisal, and their assessment of the measures of community well- two children. being proposed for land-use planning in the Central Coast, North Coast, and Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands; and the GPI accounts on forests and water quality. CANADIAN BOREAL INITIATIVE PEMBINA INSTITUTE COUNTING CANADA’S NATURAL CAPITAL: ASSESSING THE REAL VALUE OF CANADA’S BOREAL ECOSYSTEMS Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Canadian Boreal (World Wildlife Fund), Kevin Kavanagh (World Initiative for its generous financial support of this Wildlife Fund), Rick Moll (Statistic Canada), Gerry project and, specifically, Cathy Wilkinson and Matt Gravel (Statistic Canada), Robert Smith (Statistic Carlson for their leadership and guidance throughout Canada), Gary Stewart (Ducks Unlimited Canada), this two-year project. We would also like to thank Glenn Mack (Ducks Unlimited Canada), Silvie Forest Mark Winfield of the Pembina Institute for Appropriate (Ducks Unlimited Canada), Chris Smith (Ducks Development, who shepherded this project from its Unlimited Canada) Dr.Werner Kurz (Ducks Unlimited genesis to its completion. We are also grateful to Canada), Dr. Casey van Kooten (University of Victoria), Claudia Forgas’ usual careful editorial attention. Dr. Peter Boxall (University of Alberta), Bruce Macnab (Sustainable Forest Research Network, Our special thanks extend to Peter Lee and staff of University of Alberta), Dr.Viktor Adamowicz Global Forest Watch Canada, whose tireless commit- (University of Alberta), and Dr. Josh Farley ment to this project and superb spatial analysis skills (University of Vermont). made it possible for us to complete a preliminary accounting of some of the key attributes of the boreal Several recent publications contributed greatly to this region’s natural wealth. This study would not have study, including (1) Dr. Nancy Olewiler’s The Value been possible without the helpful input to an earlier of Natural Capital in Settled Areas of Canada (2004), draft from our advisers, reviewers, and contributors. a report commissioned by Ducks Unlimited