Designing a preservation system that works
Ancient cedars growing in thin soil on a steep slope in Clayoquot Valley - an area slated to be clearcut. Photo by Gerrit Sommer
If a parks and protected areas system is to preserve biodiversity in perpetuity, the lands protected must be of sufficient size and located so that they:
- represent all major ecosystem types,
- are large enough to be viable - able to adapt to short or long term changes in the local or global environment, and
- maintain in perpetuity healthy populations of all naturally occurring plants and animals.
A sustainable preservation system must include:
1. Core reserves: These are large, intact roadless wilderness areas where no resource extraction or human infrastructures are allowed. The reserves must be large enough to maintain viable populations of all species, biological communities and ecosystems. They must be located so that they shelter all the natural biodiversity. Boundaries of these areas should correspond to natural features and watersheds. Recreation must be strictly controlled to ensure negligible impacts. The proposed protected areas on the Conservation Vision map in the centre of this paper are core areas.
2. Buffer Zones: The area surrounding reserves must insolate core areas form industrial disturbances. In the buffer zones, low road density, non- motorized recreation and low intensity ecoforestry activities are allowed. Restoration work will be necessary in some buffer zones that have already been highly disturbed. Buffer zones are included, but not yet demarcated, within the community forest reserve regions on the Conservation Vision map.
3. Corridors: The core reserve areas must be physically connected by natural corridors that allow animal populations to travel between them. Ideally, corridors should be roadless and managed similarly to reserves and low use buffer zones. In the corridor areas, managing for biodiversity must be the fundamental objective. Major corridors are included as proposed protected areas on the Conservation Vision map.
