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Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources has created a plan that
would put all crown lands in one of three categories. As you may have
heard in the many media reports, the process and the plan itself have been
terrible, with very little to no lands being classified as C3
(protected areas) and a very very poor public consultation process.
If you consider yourself a scientist, please sign on to this statement
(see forwarded e-mail below). Karen Beazley is the contact for this
statement.
If you don't consider yourself a scientist, please call your local MLA,
the Minister of DNR (Ernie Fage), write letters to the editor and
otherwise kick up a fuss about this! DNR's plan can be found at:
http://www.supercity.ns.ca/~land/irmplan.htm
and I think there are contact names/addresses/phone numbers for the people
in charge there too.
Heather
>From: "Karen Beazley" <Karen.Beazley@dal.ca>
>Reply-To: Karen.Beazley@dal.ca
>Subject: IRM: Sign-on to scientists' statement
>Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000 15:05:15 -0400
>
>
>September 19, 2000
>Dear Colleague,
>
>Re: Letter from the scientists regarding Nova Scotia Department
>of Natural Resources' (DNR) Integrated Resource Management plan
>
>To sign-on, please send a return e-mail message to Karen Beazley at
><karen.beazley@dal.ca>
>indicating your name, degree/ title, and address
>or affiliation.
>
>Attached please find documents related to the Nova Scotia Department
>of Natural Resources' (DNR) Integrated Resource Management (IRM)
>plan. The first is a proposed statement of concern from Nova
>Scotia's scientific community. This statement will be forwarded to
>Premier John Hamm and other government officials when we have
>collected the names of those willing to sign-on. We would like to
>offer you, as a scientist, this opportunity to sign on (name, title,
>mailing address). The second section is a background piece outlining
>the political and ecological context of the IRM plan.
>
>This document is being circulated to several listservers, all of
>which contatin members who are not scientists. We are asking that you
>utilize your own discretion in deciding whether you are a scientist
>or not. We also ask that you forward this message to other scientists
>or other listservers, so that the message gets spread to as much of
>Nova Scotia's scientific community as possible.
>
>To sign-on, please send a return e-mail message to Karen Beazley at
>karen.beazley@dal.ca
>indicating your name, degree/ title, and address or affiliation.
>
>We also encourage you to send a letter of your own to Premier John Hamm
>expressing your views.
>
>As you may know, the IRM plan will dictate
>long-term management objectives and activity on over one million
>hectares of Crown land. This is an important process!
>
>Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please respond ASAP.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D.
>
>Martin Willison, Ph.D.
>-------
>19 September, 2000
>
>The Honourable John Hamm
>Premier of Nova Scotia
>PO Box 726
>1700 Granville St.
>Halifax, NS B3J 2T3
>
>Re: Statement of concern from scientists on biodiversity protection and
>Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Integrated
>Resource Management (IRM) process
>
>Dear Hon., Dr. Hamm:
>
>WHEREAS preserving earth's biodiversity, upon which the future of
>humankind and all life on the planet rests, will be humanity's greatest
>challenge of the 21st century;
>
>WHEREAS the Nova Scotia government has not yet lived up fully to various
>political and legal commitments to protect biodiversity;
>
>WHEREAS wild areas protected from development prevent the loss,
>fragmentation, and degradation of natural habitat, which is the leading
>cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss;
>
>WHEREAS wild areas provide free ecological services vital to the
>survival and well-being of humankind including the preservation of clean
>air, water, and soil, and the regulation of hydrological, nutrient and
>climatic cycles;
>
>WHEREAS Nova Scotia's existing protected areas are too small, too few,
>and too isolated to accommodate natural ecological and evolutionary
>processes, including migration and recruitment;
>
>WHEREAS current extractive land use practices on Crown lands are
>incompatible with the protection of biodiversity;
>
>WHEREAS the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources was given
>responsibility in 1994 to complete a long-term land use plan for over
>one million hectares of Crown land, called the Integrated Resource
>Management (IRM) Plan; and
>
>WHEREAS the current IRM Plan fails to provide a credible framework for
>biodiversity protection in Nova Scotia;
>
>BE IT RESOLVED THAT
>
>We, the undersigned members of Nova Scotia's scientific community call
>on the Provincial government to develop and implement a comprehensive
>biodiversity conservation plan based in modern conservation science.
>
>Accordingly, we call on the Government of Nova Scotia to:
>
>* complete, as promised, a network of protected areas representing all
>of the province's natural landscape types;
>
>* recognize that the completion of a responsible protected areas network
>requires many additional large protected areas on Crown lands;
>
>* acknowledge that the current management and regulatory framework for
>extractive land use practices on Crown lands needs major overhauling in
>order to reflect conservation science and protect biodiversity;
>
>* initiate immediately a comprehensive scientific analysis to identify
>additional protected areas, significant or sensitive habitats and
>ecological areas, and buffer areas and corridors;
>
>* declare a moratorium on new road and other developments within
>significant natural areas identified by the Department of Environment
>and others and remaining roadless tracts of Crown land greater than 200
>hectares until such time as a scientifically-defensible,
>ecologically-sustainable, long-term land management plan is completed;
>and
>
>* revise the IRM Plan in accordance with the above, and develop a
>program of effective incentives for biodiversity conservation on private
>lands, paying special attention to those natural landscape regions in
>which there is little Crown land.
>
>It is our opinion that to do anything less will lead to further loss of
>plant and wildlife species and habitat, landscape diversity, and quality
>of life for Nova Scotians. Please let us know at your earliest
>convenience how you intend to address this urgent matter.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, School for Resource and
>Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. B3H 3J5
>
>Martin Willison, Ph.D. Professor, Biology Dept. and School for Resource
>and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. B3H 3J5
>------------
>Background
>
>The Integrated Resource Management Process and Conservation Science:
>Political Commitments and Ecological Perspective
>
>18 September, 2000
>
>Several agreements commit the Government of Nova Scotia to develop a
>long-range plan to protect biodiversity and provide for the sustainable
>use of natural resources in the Province. While some important progress
>has been made on fulfilling these commitments, serious shortcomings
>exist. The provincial Integrated Resource Management (IRM) planning
>process should be a vehicle for fulfilling biodiversity commitments.
>Unfortunately, the proposed IRM plan protects far too little Crown land
>and fails to adequately address impacts from extractive uses such as
>logging and mining.
>
>A Statement of Commitment to complete Canada's Networks of Protected
>Areas, also known as the Tri-Council Agreement (1992), is a public
>statement of political will to complete Canada's networks of protected
>natural areas by the year 2000 and identify and protect critical
>wildlife habitat. It is endorsed by the Canadian Council of Ministers
>of the Environment, the Canadian Parks Ministers' Council, and the
>Wildlife Ministers' Council of Canada (1991).
>
>The Canadian Biodiversity Strategy is a response to obligations in the
>Green Plan (1990) and as a signatory to the International Convention on
>Biological Diversity. A goal of the strategy is to conserve
>biodiversity through the maintenance of viable populations of native
>species, completion of networks of protected areas, restoration and
>rehabilitation, and maintenance of connectivity among habitat in the
>broader landscape.
>
>The Sustainable Development Strategy for Nova Scotia (1992) calls for
>the protection of 12 percent of the land and water base. A Proposed
>Systems Plan for parks and protected Areas in Nova Scotia calls for
>representation of all 80 natural landscape types and the maintenance of
>biological diversity through broader landscape planning and management.
>The systems plan also includes proposed future actions toward protecting
>International Biological Program sites and other significant areas as
>ecological reserves under the Special Places Protection Act (1989). Gap
>analysis to identify unrepresented or under-represented natural
>landscape types is described. This plan was widely endorsed by the
>citizens of Nova Scotia through the 26 public meetings and many written
>comments.
>
>The Wilderness Areas Protection Act (1997) explicitly lists the
>maintenance of biodiversity and the integrity of natural processes as
>its first objective. Further, industry-related documents such as the
>National Forest Strategy (1997) and Whitehorse Mining Initiative (1994)
>recognize the commitment to protect biodiversity, including the
>protection of critical wildlife habitat. The Province has also
>implemented An Act Respecting Endangered Species, Bill No. 51 (1996),
>and federal Species at Risk legislation is pending.
>
>The government of Nova Scotia has the responsibility to fulfill its
>obligations and commitments to protecting biodiversity, endangered
>species, and natural landscape representivity. The greatest threat to
>biodiversity is the loss, conversion, degradation and fragmentation of
>habitat.
>
>After having selected 31 areas of provincial Crown land for protection
>under its Wilderness Areas Act, the provincial Department of Natural
>Resources (DNR) began a planning process, called Integrated Resource
>Management (IRM). The goal of this exercise is to examine resource
>conflicts and determine long-term land-use objectives on over one
>million hectares of Crown land. Many areas which had been considered
>for protection as wilderness areas within the protected areas system
>planning process were rejected because of resource commitments. For
>this reason, the IRM planning process was to include the possibility of
>additional protection of wilderness areas in a planning category called
>"C3" or "Protected and Limited Use Areas." Other Crown lands are
>classified under IRM as either "C1" ("General Resource Use Areas"), or
>"C2" ("Multiple and Adaptive Use Areas"). C1 areas are deemed by the
>DNR to have a low level of "resource conflicts," and the full range of
>land uses (i.e., logging and mining) will be allowed. C2 areas are
>deemed to have a higher level of conflict and certain land uses may be
>limited or modified.
>
>Very little, if any, additional Crown land has been recommended for
>protection in the IRM process; in fact, some Crown lands which had
>previously been designated as park reserves have had protection
>stripped, and almost no lands which had been previously identified as
>having significant natural values have been classified as C3.
>
>Even though the IRM document, Managing Natural Resources on Crown Land
>(1997), acknowledges the need to base planning on ecological units to
>"facilitate such principles as sustainable resources use and maintenance
>of biodiversity," the current IRM plan, will not protect biodiversity in
>Nova Scotia. By way of example, the DNR's Long Range Management Plan
>for Crown land in the Stanley area demonstrates the flaws in the IRM
>process.
>
>The Long Range Management Plan map for the Stanley block, one of the
>larger areas of contiguous Crown land in Central Nova Scotia, shows an
>area heavily dedicated to logging, with not a single protected area.
>Indeed, not an acre of the natural landscape type represented here
>(Central Clay Plains) is protected. Continuation of other private
>industrial activities, such as peat moss extraction, and possible
>commercial blueberry harvest, are also likely under this plan.
>
>Only 8% of the Stanley block is designated as old forest area, which is
>far too little to support old growth dependent species, even if these
>areas were connected via corridors. This is not a plan conducive to
>ecological and biological recovery from decades of abuse, which is
>required in this area of Nova Scotia (for example, the plan does not
>consider lynx, pine marten and moose which have been extirpated from
>this area). On the contrary, the plan demonstrates that the IRM vision
>is one of continued over-exploitation, conversion, fragmentation and
>degradation of the natural landscape.
>
>Protected areas and other areas managed for biodiversity objectives are
>necessary for the maintenance of genetic, population, species, and
>community diversity. In order for natural processes such as speciation
>and evolution to continue, areas of habitat protection must be large
>enough to maintain ecological integrity. It is important that there be
>adequate connectivity among protected areas to allow for the migration
>and recruitment of species over the landscape. It is paramount that
>protected areas of habitat do not become islands where species are
>isolated, as this assures or greatly increases the chances of extinction
>over time.
>
>Enough area needs to be protected or managed for biodiversity objectives
>to represent all natural landscape types and maintain ecological
>integrity. Ecological integrity requires maintenance of: natural
>processes such as succession, water and nutrient cycling, and carbon
>sequestration; viable populations of the full compliment of native
>species; and compatible human uses. Viable populations of native
>species require a minimum critical amount and quality of habitat area.
>These areas must be determined, identified and taken into account in all
>land management planning decisions. The onus should be on government
>and industry to prove that the cumulative effects of incremental land
>use activities are not threatening populations of native species and
>other critical life-supporting ecological processes.
>
>These objectives cannot be achieved within Nova Scotia's current 31
>Wilderness Areas alone. These areas are too few, too small, and too
>isolated from one another to sustain biodiversity. Currently, only 23
>of the 80 natural landscape types are considered to be "satisfactorily"
>represented in existing National and Provincial Parks and Wilderness
>Areas using the DNR's own criteria. Even the landscape types considered
>satisfactorily represented, where "satisfactorily" means 12% is
>protected, do not capture the full spectrum of biodiversity within these
>areas.
>
>The Province also needs initiatives to facilitate the protection of
>private lands, with special attention paid to natural landscape regions
>in which there is little Crown land. Such measures could include tax
>incentives for conservation easements and revision of the Municipal
>Planning Act to encourage protection of a planned system of natural
>lands. Given that almost 70% of Nova Scotia is privately owned, private
>land conservation is vital to biodiversity and natural landscape
>protection.
>
>The implications of impending climate change for many species may be
>severe. It is essential that adequate habitat be protected to allow for
>varied responses to future changes in the temperature and moisture
>regimes, such as opportunities for species migration and dispersal.
>This again requires large, connected areas of protected habitat, as well
>as the protection of the full range of all natural landscape types.
>Further, maintaining areas of forest and other natural cover will help
>buffer the impacts of climate change through carbon sequestration and
>filtering. In light of the inadequate understanding of how species do,
>and will, respond to environmental changes, a precautionary and prudent
>approach is necessary.
>
>Significant new protected areas (C3 lands) must be included in the IRM
>plan. Additionally, biodiversity objectives and criteria must be more
>meaningfully incorporated into the management of C1 and C2 lands.
>Biodiversity objectives and maintenance of ecological integrity should
>be the fundamental underlying criteria for planning and management
>decisions on all Crown lands. The products and processes of evolution
>represent the life-support system of humankind and all species, and are
>the foundation of all social and economic systems.
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D.
>
>Martin Willison, Ph.D.
>
>
>
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>School for Resource and Environmental Studies
>Dalhousie University
>Halifax, N.S.
>B3H 3J5
>
>
>Telephone: (902) 494-1383
>Fax: (902) 494-3728
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