Saturday, February 27, 2010

Plenary 2: Dealing With Change


Plenary Description:

In this second plenary of the conference, our speakers will focus on how we can maintain flexibility and adaptability in addressing future prairie and species conservation needs in the face of constant local, and increasingly global, changes. Global economic drivers influence not only conservation policies and programs but also our personal lifestyles, values and material consumption. How do we balance growing global human needs with the needs of other species on the Prairies? Given these current and future realities, how do we choose a path forward that balances economic growth and consumerism with environmental health and sustainability?  Do we manage ourselves and our impacts on nature or will we default to letting economic pressures manage our approach to conservation across the Prairie landscape? Is adaptive policy management, within the current socio-economic and environmental context, enough to sustain biodiversity and the processes needed to maintain vital ecological links?  This session will examine emerging strategies and ideas that may help us adapt to the changing current and future socio-economic climate. This session will encourage us to look for new paradigms which will aid our efforts to accomplish conservation through more effective strategies, ultimately encouraging us to take control of our own future conservation destiny, in harmony and association with global change and our natural environment.

Guest Speaker - Celes Davar

Workshop 4: Changes in Prairie Health
Moderators: Melanie Dubois and Kevin Teneycke

Workshop Description: The intent of this workshop is to build on the status and trends reporting in Workshop 1: Ecological Changes and discuss how that information is used as tools to address the impacts on Prairie Health and subsequently species-at-risk. The speakers will explore how that information is pulled together to direct policy and program responses, as well as identify gaps in the current tools and approaches. The session will demonstrate why the focus must shift from individual species components towards an ecosystem or multi-species approach and the projects that are underway to accomplish this. The workshop will also address the challenges of studying cumulative impacts, and different approaches that have been attempted.

Main topics for discussion will include:

    • Ecosystems Status and Trends Report: A Tool for Change – filling the gap on ecosystem scale information and providing ecosystem based information as a foundation for education and extension and prioritization.
    • The Wildlife Habitat Availability on Farmland Indicator - This provides a multi-species assessment of broad-scale trends in the capacity of the Canadian agricultural landscape to provide suitable habitat for populations of terrestrial vertebrates.
    • Multi-species at risk planning initiatives – Alberta: Developing applied habitat management techniques and working cooperatively on private land.
    • Cumulative impacts on grassland birds – the challenges of measuring those impacts.
    • Aquatic SAR – assessing the cumulative impacts and education and extension tools, along with regulations targeted at mitigating those impacts.
    • Assessing the health of the Prairies – looking at the multiple challenges concerning assessments including consistency in methodology, application of results and making the link to management actions to improve or maintain a healthy ecosystem.

Workshop 5: Changes in Prairie and Species Conservation
Moderators: Diana Bizecki Robson and Jason Greenall

Workshop Description: Rare species are particularly vulnerable to extinction because their small population sizes and reduced ranges make them more susceptible to genetic, demographic and environmental uncertainties.  Initial conservation efforts on the prairies focused on rare species for these reasons.  These early conservation efforts shed light on the fact that rare species cannot be saved without also saving the ecosystems they live in.  Thus a shift has occurred from species-specific management to ecosystem management.  Increased knowledge regarding the genetic structure of rare species is raising additional questions about what our conservation efforts should entail.

Part I: Species-At-Risk or Ecosystems-At-Risk?

Much of our initial conservation efforts focused on “saving” endangered species.  However, has this species-specific approach really helped to conserve critical habitats?  Are there changes that should be made to our approach that would be more effective in terms of both costs and results?  Are there “critical processes,” such as fire and grazing that are needed to achieve conservation goals?

In the first part of the session our panel members will update us on the status of rare prairie species, describe the changes that have occurred in their rare species conservation activities over the years, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches.

Part 2:  Genetic Issues in Rare Species Conservation

Conservation of genetic diversity in rare species is an increasingly important issue as genetic diversity enables species to adapt to changes in climate and habitat.  Factors with the potential to affect the genetic structure of rare species include hybridization, inbreeding depression, founder effects and outbreeding depression.

In the second part of the session our panel members will discuss genetic problems facing rare organisms and describe the tools that may be useful for the conservation of genetic diversity in rare species.

Workshop 6: Changing Relationships
Moderators: Julie Sveinson Pelc and Mike Quigley

Workshop Description: Relationships between society and the natural environment are always changing, with Canada’s prairie population increasingly living in urban centres. The future of prairie conservation is thought to be dependent on the financial and political support of urban people. Many of these people may have never experienced the natural world. As a result, their view of nature is likely based on experiences with ecosystems that have been drastically altered by human activity.

Although current and past generations may have had genuine experiences with the natural environment, future generations will likely experience a greater degree of removal from direct association with the land. As less time is spent experiencing the natural environment, an increasing disconnect between society and nature develops that has been described as a “Nature Deficit Disorder”. 

Despite some of these trends, much is being done to conserve prairie habitat through increased public engagement, awareness, and appreciation of native prairie ecosystems. Urban planning is changing to adopt protection, enhancement, and restoration of natural areas; rural/urban partnerships are being developed between grass roots organizations, non-governmental groups and government agencies; communities are becoming involved in conservation activities; and hands-on education programs are being administered on the premise that people are more likely to conserve nature when they have had direct positive experiences with it.

Without an emotional connection or knowledge of our natural prairie landscape, it may be lost.  A diversity of voices has been invited to share their experiences with our changing relationship to the natural environment. They will consider the past, present, and future social trends in prairie conservation.


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