The Climate Nexus by Jon O'Riordan

Author:Jon O'Riordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-77160-143-6
Publisher: RMB | Rocky Mountain Books
Published: 2015-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

Biodiversity

ACT recognized from its outset that adaptation is closely linked to resiliency – the ability of systems (natural, social or technological) to withstand change and retain their functionality. The very first ACT report, Climate Change Adaptation and Biodiversity (2008), focused on the ability of natural systems to adapt to changing hydro-climatic conditions while sustaining their ecosystem values. This analysis was applied to British Columbia, partly because that province has the most diverse ecosystems in the country and partly because rapid development of natural resources there has reduced ecosystem resiliency.

In British Columbia, unlike in other provinces, the Crown owns approximately 95 per cent of the land and resources. Consequently, almost all resource sector development requires government approval. To provide a strategic road map for guiding such developments, the provincial government prepared 26 Land and Resource Management Plans across the province between 1993 and 2008. These plans established areas recognized as having such high environmental and biological values that they should be fully protected from resource development. Over the 15 years of planning, the size of protected areas increased from 6 per cent to 14 per cent of the province. For the rest of the Crown lands, the plans set out general principles for resource development that were in turn supported by legal standards laid out by numerous pieces of resource legislation, each enforced by a separate agency.

ACT noted that though individual agencies may meet their statutory requirements, the cumulative effect of many separate development actions in a single ecosystem like a watershed could lead to loss of ecosystem function. Accordingly ACT recommended that a single agency be responsible for all land and water decisions on Crown land. Such an agency was established in 2010 and is now developing an integrated decision-making model so that a single decider makes all rulings related to land and water in watersheds.

ACT further recommended that the government tackle the cumulative effects of multiple developments on single ecosystems, which can exceed nature’s limits and bring about unintentional loss of ecosystem function. ACT proposed that initial attention be paid to ecosystems of higher value, those that are not functioning well and those located where there is highly valued resource-development potential. Pilot cumulative effect assessments are currently under way in high-risk areas to develop information requirements and improve decision-making tools. These pilots will be completed by 2021 and will provide a more robust approach to sustaining ecosystem resiliency in light of the changing climate as well as enabling well-designed resource development.

In May 2015 British Columbia’s Auditor General reviewed these pilot projects on cumulative effects as applied in the northwestern region of the province. She was critical of the length of time it took to implement the approach, given the multitude of potential developments in the region. She also criticized the lack of clear legislative authority to change the rules associated with the existing sectoral approach and emphasized the needs for clearer direction from government and for monitoring to support the new approach. The provincial government has responded by bringing

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