Abstract
Habitat protection has been identified as an important strategy for the conservation of woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus). However, because of the economic opportunity costs associated with protection it is unlikely that all caribou ranges can be protected in their entirety. We used an optimization approach to identify reserve designs for caribou in Alberta, Canada, across a range of potential protection targets. Our designs minimized costs as well as three demographic risk factors: current industrial footprint, presence of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and climate change. We found that, using optimization, 60% of current caribou range can be protected (including 17% in existing parks) while maintaining access to over 98% of the value of resources on public lands. The trade-off between minimizing cost and minimizing demographic risk factors was minimal because the spatial distributions of cost and risk were similar. The prospects for protection are much reduced if protection is directed towards the herds that are most at risk of near-term extirpation.
Highlights
Woodland caribou herds are declining across much of their range in Canada, prompting the development of recovery strategies at the federal and provincial levels [1]
All three designs exhibited a strong preference for caribou range adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park and an avoidance of caribou range in eastcentral Alberta, where the main oil sands deposits are located (Fig. 3)
Given the incompatibility between industrial development and caribou viability [2,5,15,16], habitat protection represents a key strategy for caribou conservation
Summary
Woodland caribou herds are declining across much of their range in Canada, prompting the development of recovery strategies at the federal and provincial levels [1]. The protection of caribou habitat has been identified as an important component of recovery efforts, given the underlying role of anthropogenic disturbances in the decline of caribou populations [2,3,4,5]. In this study we explore an alternative approach in which protection is allocated strategically, at the township scale (,9500 ha), with the aim of maximizing overall conservation gains given economic constraints [7,8]. This work builds on an earlier study that documented differences among caribou herds in Alberta with respect to the cost of recovery efforts and various measures of long-term viability [6]
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