The Wilderness Committee is in this report launching our strategy to see 41% of Vancouver Island set aside as protected areas based on the application of Conservation Areas Design, which builds on the principles of conservation biology. The report also lays out strategies to promote more value-added manufacturing, resulting in an increase of sustainable forestry jobs so we would get much more out of each tree logged.

Vancouver Island Conservation Vision

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.25 - No.05, Summer 2005

Regional conservation planning

By Pierre Iachetti

Regional-scale conservation planning is frequently used by organizations to identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Such planning employs a science-based methodology for identifying and prioritizing areas for sustainable conservation of native species of plants and animals and ecosystem functions. Plans are spatially explicit and based on biological value, human impacts, and opportunity for implementation.


Three basic approaches to conservation planning are integrated:


  • One: Representation of a broad spectrum of environmental variation (e.g., vegetation, terrestrial biotic, and freshwater and marine habitat classes).
  • Two: Protection of special elements: concentrations of communities; rare or at-risk communities; rare physical habitats; concentrations of species; locations of at-risk species; locations of highly valued species or their habitats; locations of major genetic variants.
  • Three: Conservation of habitats for focal species, whose needs help planners address issues of habitat area, configuration, and quality. These species (a) need large areas or several well connected areas, or (b) are sensitive to human disturbance, and (c) can have habitat suitability models available or constructed for them.

    • Regional conservation assessments, take a macroscopic view of the region, and are useful for:
    1)-Highlighting areas of regional biological significance;
    2)-Portraying the spatial pattern of high value sites on a broad scale;
    3)-Illuminating the landscape context of these sites;
    4)-Assessing the conservation needs of wide-ranging (i.e., “regional-scale” and “coarse-scale”) species;
    5)-Identifying priorities for further, more detailed research on finer spatial scales. Regional conservation planning is not intended to address site-level issues, which require high resolution of habitat features.


    See credits for references and links.


    The Nature Conservancy of Canada works with diverse partners, including government, industry, and other conservation organizations to protect native ecosystems. They make their science-based ecoregional assessments available for all parties to use in conservation efforts and land-use planning.


    Conservation Biology and Big Wilderness

    Almost a century ago British Columbia designated its first provincial park, Strathcona, located in the mountainous centre of Vancouver Island.

    Since that historic first step, 13% of Vancouver Island’s landbase has been granted park protection by successive provincial governments. However, only 6% of the Island’s low elevation, productive forests have been protected. This includes only 2% of the spectacular Coastal Douglas fir forests that once carpeted the southeast side of the Island. By contrast, over 90% of Vancouver Island’s alpine areas, which are of little use to the logging companies, are protected within parks.

    It is becoming clear that protecting 13% of the Island’s land base is simply not enough to conserve it’s biodiversity. Species are in decline as logging, road-building, mining, farming, and urbanization surround our parks. Many will eventually disappear from our too-small isolated parks. Numerous conservation biology studies have shown time and time again that smaller protected areas lose more species over time than larger protected areas.

    Small populations of wildlife in small, isolated parks are prone to inbreeding; a loss of genetic diversity resulting in a lack of evolutionary adaptability to changing environmental conditions; and being wiped out by disturbances such as diseases, fires, floods, or windstorms.

    The new discipline of conservation biology has demonstrated the need for much larger, interconnected protected areas if our protected areas are not to become “islands of extinction”. Based on these findings, the Wilderness Committee recommends that at least 40% of our province be protected. The Vancouver Island Conservation Vision includes 41% of Vancouver Island.

    Only big, interconnected protected areas can sustain large enough populations of all species to ensure their long-term survival. This is especially true for animals with large home ranges. For example, a single wolf may range over 300 square kilometres.

    In addition, even though more sustainable forestry like selection logging is needed, it’s not a substitute for the full protection of the most ecologically significant areas. Selection logging still entails road-building, tree removal, and soil compaction, and destroys the more sensitive elements of biodiversity, some of which we’re aware of, most of which we’re not. Selection logging is suitable only for forests outside of protected areas.

    Large, interconnected protected areas are also needed to allow species and ecosystems to migrate with the changing climate. As it gets warmer, species tend to move higher in elevation or northwards. In small parks and fragmented habitats, the movement of species are interrupted by barriers such as roads, clearcuts, farmland, and cities. If animals and plants cannot move to suitable habitats when needed, they are eventually eliminated from the landscape. Only interconnected reserves that are large enough to encompass a wide gradient of climates, elevations, and habitats can accommodate these shifts in distribution.

    The Conservation Areas Design (produced by scientists with the Nature Conservancy) upon which the Wilderness Committee’s Vancouver Island Conservation Vision is based, includes a systematic evaluation of the ecosystems, plant associations, species at risk, large carnivore habitats, and other biodiversity elements on the Island. If the Conservation Vision is implemented, it would greatly help to conserve the native biodiversity of Vancouver Island in large, interconnected, ecologically viable protected areas.