Boreal Futures: Governance, Conservation and Development in Canada’s Boreal
However, there are a number of challenges to the use of traditional knowledge. There are few formal requirements, for example, to apply traditional knowledge in government land use planning and environmental management legislation and regulations.8 There have also been difficulties in the past in reconciling traditional ecological knowledge with the results of scientific studies. Yet progress is being made. A good example of how traditional knowledge is being incorporated into conservation at the federal level is through the Species at Risk Act. Under the Act, an Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee, of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), was established to formalize a process whereby traditional knowledge could be incorporated and shared to provide for more abundant species information. The subcommittee consists of a national network of traditional knowledge holders and elders who work with COSEWIC to coordinate and share information on assessing and classifying species at risk. Uncertainty About Climate Change Impacts in the Boreal Climate change presents one of the basic challenges to the long-term economic, environmental and social stability of the boreal. Scientists generally agree that climate change could have far-reaching implications for the industries and communities of the boreal. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the scale and pace of that change. As a result, adaptation and flexibility may emerge as significant challenges
Climate change presents one of the basic challenges to the long-term economic, environmental and social stability of the boreal.
to governments as well as individual companies and communities in the region. The need for adaptation and flexibility will put a premium, therefore, on leadership, education and information in the boreal in the years ahead. One recent study undertaken by Natural Resources Canada concluded that the biophysical impacts of climate change on forests could translate into many different social and economic impacts affecting forest companies, landowners, consumers, governments and the tourism industry.9 Table 1 summarizes the possible biophysical and associated socio-economic impacts. The Natural Resources Canada study concluded that the magnitude of socio-economic impacts, such as those listed in Table 1, will depend on: • the nature and rate of climate change; • the response of forest ecosystems;
TABLE 1: EXAMPLES OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN CANADA BIOPHYSICAL IMPACT
SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT
Changes in forest productivity
Changes in timber supply and rent value
Increased atmospheric greenhouse gases
Introduction of carbon mitigation policies (credits or permits) that create a carbon sequestration market
Increased disturbances
Loss of forest stock and non-market goods
Northward shift of ecozones
Change in land values and land use options
Change in climate and ecosystems
Economic restructuring leading to social and individual stress and other social pathologies
Ecosystem and specialist species changes
Changes in non-market values
Ecosystem changes
Dislocation of parks and natural areas, increased land use conflicts
Source: Natural Resources Canada, Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation: A Canadian Perspective (2004).
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