IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v82y2019icp821-831.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Application of land-use simulation to protected area selection for efficient avoidance of biodiversity loss in Canada’s western boreal region

Author

Listed:
  • Carlson, Matt
  • Browne, David
  • Callaghan, Carolyn

Abstract

Avoided ecological loss is an appropriate measure of conservation effectiveness, but challenging to measure because it requires consideration of counterfactual conditions. Land-use simulation is a well suited but underutilized tool in this regard. As a case study for the application of land-use simulation to assess the impact of protected areas, we present a scenario analysis exploring conservation options in Canada’s western boreal forest. The cumulative effect of multiple natural resource sectors, including oil and gas, forestry, and agriculture, have substantially altered the region’s ecosystems in recent decades and elevated risk to wildlife. The evolving state of the region is such that managing risks to biodiversity requires consideration of not only today’s but also tomorrow’s conditions. We simulated the long-term (50-year) outcomes of land use and protection to caribou, fisher, fish, and resource production in each of 104 watersheds in the 693,345 km2 study area. Simulated land use caused increased risk to wildlife in response to northwards expansion of resource extraction and expansion of agricultural lands. For each watershed, indicator performance with and without protection were compared to calculate the benefit (avoided ecological loss) and cost (lost opportunity for resource production) of protection. The capacity for protected areas to avoid disturbance varied substantially across watersheds, as did the potential loss of economic opportunity. Focusing protection on cost-effective watersheds made protected area expansion a more efficient strategy for reducing wildlife risk than reducing the overall rate of natural resource production. Heterogeneity in the cost-effectiveness of protection presents an opportunity to balance ecological integrity and economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlson, Matt & Browne, David & Callaghan, Carolyn, 2019. "Application of land-use simulation to protected area selection for efficient avoidance of biodiversity loss in Canada’s western boreal region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 821-831.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:821-831
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837718312596
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johannes Wessely & Karl Hülber & Andreas Gattringer & Michael Kuttner & Dietmar Moser & Wolfgang Rabitsch & Stefan Schindler & Stefan Dullinger & Franz Essl, 2017. "Habitat-based conservation strategies cannot compensate for climate-change-induced range loss," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(11), pages 823-827, November.
    2. Paul D Pickell & Nicholas C Coops & Sarah E Gergel & David W Andison & Peter L Marshall, 2016. "Evolution of Canada’s Boreal Forest Spatial Patterns as Seen from Space," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-20, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peng Tian & Luodan Cao & Jialin Li & Ruiliang Pu & Hongbo Gong & Changda Li, 2020. "Landscape Characteristics and Ecological Risk Assessment Based on Multi-Scenario Simulations: A Case Study of Yancheng Coastal Wetland, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Liu, Yujie & Zou, Xintong & Chen, Jie & Pan, Tao, 2022. "Impacts of protected areas establishment on pastoralists’ livelihoods in the Three-River-Source Region on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. He Gao & Wei Song, 2022. "Assessing the Landscape Ecological Risks of Land-Use Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-25, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Olesia Havryliuk & Vira Hovorukha & Oleksandr Savitsky & Volodymyr Trilis & Antonina Kalinichenko & Agnieszka Dołhańczuk-Śródka & Daniel Janecki & Oleksandr Tashyrev, 2021. "Anaerobic Degradation of Environmentally Hazardous Aquatic Plant Pistia stratiotes and Soluble Cu(II) Detoxification by Methanogenic Granular Microbial Preparation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Yutong Zhang & Wei Zhou & Danxue Luo, 2023. "The Relationship Research between Biodiversity Conservation and Economic Growth: From Multi-Level Attempts to Key Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:82:y:2019:i:c:p:821-831. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.