Biodiversity In Canada Research Articles

Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in Canada's forests: Progress and challenges

This paper is a summary of an assessment of the forest community's progress toward meeting its commitment to the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy of maintaining the extent, diversity and health of a large portion of the world's temperate and boreal forests. The past decade's success with current sustainable forest management programs has been important in achieving Canada's custodial responsibilities. So, too, is our enviable position of a high degree of public ownership of forests, the wilderness nature of most northern forests and limited development that has largely retained forests in their natural state. As Canada develops a new National Forest Strategy, there is again the opportunity to examine emerging issues and develop new programs to meet the challenges over the next five years. Canada has made considerable progress in achieving a strong commitment to biodiversity conservation by establishing a variety of new mechanisms to monitor and deliver programs. The Canadian Biodiversity Strategy is a long-term commitment that requires sustained resources and co-operation from a variety of governmental, industry and community interests. Key words: forest biodiversity, sustainable forest management, ecosystem approach.

Comparative regional assessment of factors impacting freshwater fish biodiversity in Canada

This study presents a broad analysis of freshwater fish species biodiversity in relation to environmental and stress metrics throughout Canada. Species presence–absence data were used to calculate richness and rarity indices by tertiary watershed. Richness is higher in the southern parts of Canada, whereas rarity is concentrated in a "ring of rarity" around the periphery of the country. Environmental and stress indices were developed for each watershed using readily available mapped information. The environmental index was estimated using growing degree-days above 5°C, elevation range (m) within the watershed, mean annual sunshine hours, and mean annual vapour pressure (kPa). The number of crop farms, forestry, waste management, and petroleum refining facilities, road density (km·1000 km–2), dwelling density, and discharge sites (chimneys and laundry outlets) per 1000 km2 described the human stresses in each watershed. Conservation priority rankings were developed for the watersheds using an integrative index of the three indices. Watersheds in southern Ontario and British Columbia were ranked high because they contain the greatest biodiversity and the most stress. This study indicates how regional analyses can guide fisheries and watershed management.

The Implementation Gap: Rhetoric and Reality in Canadian Natural Resource and Environmental Policy

Review Last Stand: A Journey Through North America's Vanishing Ancient Rain forest. Larry Pynn. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1999. Clearcutting the Pacific Rainforest.- Production, Science, and Regulation. Richard A. Rajala. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1998. Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia. L. Anders Sandberg and Peter Clancy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2000. Fishing Places, Fishing People: Traditions and Issues in Canadian Small-Scale Fisheries. Eds. Dianne Newell and Rosemary E. Omer. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. Community, State and Market on the North Atlantic Rim: Challenges to Modernity in the Fisheries. Richard Apostle, Gene Barrett, Petter Holm, Svein Jentcroft, Leigh Mazany, Bonnie McCay and Knut Mikalsen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Voluntary Initiatives: The New Politics of Corporate Greening. Ed. Robert B. Gibson. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1999. Communities, Development and Sustainability Across Canada. Eds. John T. Pierce and Ann Dale. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1999. Biodiversity in Canada: Ecology, Ideas and Action. Ed. Stephen Bocking. Peterborough: Broadview, 2000. Biodiversity and Democracy: Rethinking Society and Nature. Ed. Paul M. Wood. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2000. Canada contains a large portion of the world's land mass and seacoast and, almost by definition, is home to a large portion of the world's wildlife and natural resources. Canadian natural resource and environmental policies, hence, are significant not only within Canada's boundaries, but outside them, and since the development of the conservation movement in the 1880s, Canada has been a major player on the stage of international resource and environmental policy making. In the 1970s and 1980s, Canada earned a good reputation because the government and citizens led and promoted events such as the 1972 Stockholm conference on the environment, the United Nations' Environmental Program (UNEP) and the 1992 Rio Conference. More shrewd observers question this reputation and Canada's resource and environmental record must be held up to the light of actual practices on the ground. It became apparent in the 1990s that there is a substantial implementation gap - a gap between government rhetoric and reality. In the Canadian resource and environmental policy this gap has increasingly come to characterize Canadian policy making. Against the positive record of Canadian federal governments in such areas as protection of the atmosphere from ozone pollution, for example, are the more recent embarrassments of the Hague, where Canada failed completely to live up its commitments on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions under the terms of the Kyoto protocol. Against the record Canadian provinces hold in creating new parks (and obtaining close to the Brundtland Commission's target of 12 per cent protected spaces) must be held the continuing difficulties associated with large-scale deforestation and clear cut logging. And against claims to embrace sustainability and biodiversity must be held the record of all levels of Canadian governments in contributing to the destruction of the east coast ground fish and West Coast salmon fisheries. Canadian governments have also continued to promote trapping and seal hunting associated with the fur industry, and they refuse to enact endangered species legislation to which they are committed by international conventions on biodiversity and endangered wildlife. The books reviewed here, while different in origin, perspective, method and content, provide insight into the characteristics of and reasons for this severe implementation gap. Some suggest ways the gap can be filled, and Canada's unenviable record of inaction on major environmental issues in recent years reversed. …

Biodiversity in Canada: A Science Assessment for Environment Canada, by Biodiversity Science Assessment Team [Review

Biodiversity in Canada: A Science Assessment for Environment Canada, by Biodiversity Science Assessment Team [Review