Climate change and protected areas policy, planning and management in Canada's boreal forest

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For over a decade, the international scientific community and protected areas professionals have recognized that climate change will have critical implications for protected areas policy, planning and management. However, only a limited literature to date has focused on the implications of climate change for specific protected areas jurisdictions (i.e., national and/or provincial/territorial parks systems). This paper provides an overview of the potential impacts of climate change on Canada's system of boreal protected areas, highlighting the cross-jurisdictional policy, planning and management sensitivities in this biome. Results of a nation-wide climate change survey with protected area organizations are also presented, which reveal a strong incongruity between the perceived salience of climate change for protected area policy and management and a lack of available resources to provide capacity to deal with the challenge of climate change adaptation. To safeguard against the limitations of traditional protected areas system planning, and to ensure the persistence of boreal ecodiversity over the 21st century and beyond, we call for more rigorous and practical discussion by Canadian protected areas agencies and organizations on the issue of climate change and for a collective and proactive management response. Key words: protected areas, climate change, boreal forest, Canada, adaptation, impacts, policy, planning, management