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Some of the best remaining natural areas have been retained through public
ownership, public policy or private stewardship, but in total, less than 5% of
the landscape is currently protected by ownership or provincial policy. In the
1980s and 90s, the Carolinian Canada program carried out extensive landowner
contact and land acquisition within 38 significant natural areas. However,
habitats and species continue to be lost at an alarming rate.
In large part, these losses are related to the increasing fragmentation and
isolation of remnant habitats, causing loss of species requiring large blocks
of habitat. Carolinian Canada provides a textbook example of the effects of
fragmentation on wildlife, with 14 animals and 25 plants already extirpated
from the region, and many others on the brink.
The Big Picture project provides a framework to extend
conservation planning beyond existing "islands of green," to
highlight the importance of relatively large core habitats and of natural
corridors linking together these cores. This interconnected landscape should
be better able to maintain viable wildlife populations and perhaps even
restore some species now missing. Many of Ontario's top conservation
scientists were involved in the GIS-based analysis that produced the Big
Picture mapping, which provides a scientific context and rationale for
local conservation initiatives, and a source of information to coordinate
future activities across jurisdictions.
To achieve the Big Picture vision, new incentives, new approaches,
and new resources will be needed. This paper examines a broad spectrum of
possible new tools, drawing from programs currently in place in Ontario and in
other jurisdictions. None of these tools has any official sanction at this
point, but they are presented to stimulate thinking and discussion about the
best bets for future progress. Potential tools are presented within five broad
categories.
A. Sharing the Vision
To be successful, the Big Picture vision needs to be broadly
accepted by government agencies, landowners, and residents as a road map to
ecological health. Embedding the vision into a range of plans, strategies, and
actions will hasten that acceptance.
§ Recognize the
distinctive nature and needs of Carolinian Canada in government policies and
programs. The Province with other partners could develop a major
regional conservation strategy including land use policies, education, private
land stewardship, incentives and land securement for all or parts of
Carolinian Canada. Special recognition could be given through the Province's
Smart Growth initiative. Alternatively, natural heritage policies under the Planning
Act could be modified to provide different and stronger rules for this
region. The Ministry of Natural Resources could also address the special needs
of this region within its Natural Heritage Strategy for Southcentral Region.
§ Broaden the focus
of protection and recovery activities from species at risk to restoration of
landscapes supporting multiple rare species. Some progress in this
area is already evident in recovery plans underway for Pelee Island and the
Sydenham River, as well as in such organizations as Tallgrass Ontario. The
agencies involved in species conservation and recovery could identify other
habitat themes, such as forest interiors, wetlands or coldwater streams, for
recovery strategies involving multiple species.
§ Encourage the use
of planning tools that address landscape- and watershed-level issues,
building on existing programs such as watershed planning, natural heritage
strategies, and the Biosphere Reserve designations for the Niagara Escarpment
and Long Point areas. For example, municipalities and conservation authorities
have the mandate to develop watershed plans and comprehensive natural heritage
strategies within their jurisdictions, which can do much to protect and
restore habitat. Parks Canada and other agencies could further promote and
implement greater ecosystem planning concepts to provide links to existing
protected areas, as well as develop a marine conservation area for Lake Erie.
Programs to restore the Great Lakes, including the Lake Erie LaMP process and
six Remedial Action Plans within Carolinian Canada, offer opportunities to
restore habitats and biodiversity.
B. Strengthening
Incentives for Conservation
Most of Carolinian Canada is in private hands, and sharing responsibility
for the environment through economic incentives is a concept increasingly
being adopted, both in Ontario and in other jurisdictions.
§ Broaden the
application of water quality incentives, and link these more strongly to
biodiversity restoration, particularly through renewal and expansion
of rural water quality programs which also restore vegetated corridors along
streams.
§ Expand financial
incentives to encourage retirement of targeted rural lands to conservation,
for example by establishing a conservation reserve program for private lands
modeled after successful American programs. A Ducks Unlimited Canada proposal
for a national Conservation Cover Incentive Program, which is currently under
consideration, could be a major step forward. Increased provincial incentives
to encourage tree planting and to promote sustainable forestry as an income
source could also influence the management of private lands.
§ Make property tax
incentive programs more effective, by broadening the Conservation
Lands Tax Incentive Program to include other categories of natural lands, and
by modifying the Managed Forests Tax Incentive Program to encourage forest
creation and greater landowner participation and to better incorporate
conservation objectives. The Farm Land Taxation Program could be revised to
offer a further incentive to farmers to retain natural habitats. A
comprehensive review to improve how the Conservation Lands, Managed Forests,
and Farmland tax incentive programs interact is also needed.
§ Provide
incentives to support First Nations in their protection of conservation lands,
through discussions about potential voluntary partnerships and ways to support
compatible economic activities such as ecotourism.
- Want to find out more about Strengthening Incentives for Conservation
topics?
C. Informing and Educating
for Conservation and Restoration
To build a broad consensus about conservation priorities, it is necessary
to inform rural landowners, urban residents, adults and children.
§ Upgrade, simplify
and expand educational materials and technical advice for rural landowners,
through renewed private land stewardship programs provided by Stewardship
Councils, conservation authorities and others, and by improving conservation
information and financial support in programs of farm organizations,
particularly the Environmental Farm Plan program.
§ Raise awareness
of urban residents of the need for conservation and restoration of Carolinian
ecosystems, through distribution of educational materials for schools
and through community-based naturalization and conservation projects.
- Want to find out more about Informing & Educating for Conservation
topics?
D. Funding Land Securement
and Restoration
Achieving the Big Picture vision requires a long-term investment
in securing and restoring key parts of the landscape.
§ Expand the
existing protected areas system by using the Big Picture strategy to
help establish land securement priorities and by acting on opportunities such
as St. Williams Forest.
§ Establish financial commitments by
public agencies to support land securement and restoration, similar
to the extensive federal and state funding programs currently in place in the
United States. For example, the Canadian and Ontario governments could
dedicate selected revenue sources to future land securement, either through
special allocations similar to the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund or the
Ontario Living Legacy Trust, or through dedication of a particular revenue
source, such as a portion of the Land Transfer Tax. A charitable Carolinian
Recovery Trust could also be created to develop funding resources for recovery
and restoration projects.
§ Use the power of
public-private partnerships to fuel land securement and restoration projects,
matching government programs and funding with volunteer involvement and
private donations to complete cooperative projects.
§ Improve tax
incentives to encourage full or partial donations of environmentally
significant lands, building on recent progress in the federal
Ecogifts program to consider provisions to allow bargain sales or to reduce
capital gains taxes for land sold to conservation organizations.
- Want to find out more about Securment and Restoration topics?
E. The Role of Land Use
Planning and Management
Most of the planning controls affecting private land are implemented
through the Official Plans and zoning bylaws of municipalities, but within
overall policy direction provided by the Provincial Policy Statement and
related guidelines.
- Strengthen the Provincial Policy Statement and implementation to
require protection of key natural features, encourage restoration and
promote sound water management. This could include changes to
broaden application of "no development" policies to the full
range of natural heritage features, adding a requirement for natural
heritage system concepts and restoration policies, providing better
guidance on water resource protection and strengthening the wording to
ensure consistency in Official Plans. Limits could be placed on issues
going to Ontario Municipal Board hearings and on OMB changes to municipal
decisions.
- Promote naturalization and increase tree cover in urban areas by
developing town and city forestry programs and enhancing urban
naturalization partnerships.
- Encourage municipalities to make better use of existing planning
and regulatory tools, particularly by going beyond Provincial
policy to incorporate natural heritage systems based on the Big
Picture concept within their Official Plans. More effective controls
on tree cutting could also be implemented through improved tree bylaws or
regulation of forestry contractors.
- Update the regulatory role of conservation authorities, through
enactment of a proposed generic regulation approach for new flood, fill
and alteration to waterways regulations.
- Want to find out more about Land Use Planning and Management topics?
What Next?
No single tool is going to ensure the Big Picture vision becomes a
reality over the next several generations. Rather, a package of "carrots
and sticks" is needed, drawing from the possibilities outlined in this
report and involving all levels of government and non-government
organizations.
At the national level, particular emphasis in the short term should be
given to:
- Improvements in tax policy on full and partial land donations;
- Renewed financial support for Environmental Farm Plans and their
implementation;
- A new conservation cover incentive program;
- A marine conservation area for Lake Erie;
- Progress on Lakewide Management Plans;
- A multi-species approach to species at risk.
At the provincial level, short term priorities include:
- Improvements to property tax incentive programs;
- Renewed support for rural water quality incentives and tree-planting
programs;
- Improvements to the Provincial Policy Statement and its implementation;
- Strengthened conservation authority regulations and watershed planning;
- Coordination through a revised Southcentral Natural Heritage Strategy;
- Long-term investment in protection and restoration of natural areas.
At the local level, communities can:
- Develop natural heritage strategies, watershed plans and municipal
policies
- Develop rural water quality programs
- Naturalize parkland, school yards and back yards in cities and towns
- Enact tree-cutting by-laws and / or forestry contractor regulation
by-laws
- Secure and restore local Carolinian habitats
At the Carolinian Canada ecoregion level, the most promising option is the
development of a regional conservation strategy for Carolinian Canada, perhaps
through an advisory panel appointed by the Province using a similar process as
the Oak Ridges Moraine.
Prepared by
Ron Reid, Bobolink Enterprises
In collaboration with the Carolinian Canada Coalition
April 2002
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