ecological integrity : what is it? how do we measure it? and why it is important! nik lopoukhine and...
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important!
Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish
A beyond borders presentation
![Page 2: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Presentation outline
• What compels us to measure, report and manage
• What is it that we need to measure for purposes of
biodiversity conservation
• Review “Ecological integrity”
• Concepts of goal setting
• Objectives of seminar and how we will achieve these
![Page 3: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Park Management RealitiesThe human ecological footprint
Elk IslandNP
Edmonton, AB
![Page 4: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Islands in a greater landscape
FUNDY NP BORDER
![Page 5: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
PAs - the Mine Canaries of land/seascapes
• Protected Areas are embedded in their surrounding sea/landscapes – the greater ecosystem.
• The state of a Protected Area is influenced by the condition of and thus the land/water use activities within that greater ecosystem.
• Hence, the Protected Area is a barometer (the canary in the mine)of its greater ecosystem.
• Hence,the value of measuring and reporting on the EI of a PA extends beyond park management interests.
![Page 6: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Institutional drivers and Response
• Biodiversity Convention (SBSTTA, COP 7)
• Other conventions (WHS, Ramsar) and protocols
• Legislation and policies
• Donors (GEF) results and indicators of such
Response:
Setting Goals, Objectives - criteria and indicators
Measurement and reporting of management effectiveness
![Page 7: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Biodiversity Convention
The BDC Article 8 clauses c, e, f challenge
(c) Regulate or manage biological resources important for the conservation
of biological diversity whether within or outside protected areas, with a
view to ensuring their conservation and sustainable use;
(e) Promote environmentally sound and sustainable development in areas
adjacent to protected areas with a view to furthering protection of these
areas;
(f) Rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery
of threatened species, inter alia, through the development and
implementation of plans or other management strategies;
![Page 8: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
Biodiversity conservation
Increasingly, Ecological Integrity is becoming the focus of
PA management where biodiversity conservation is a
goal
e.g. Canada’s national parks have the maintenance or restoration
of ecological integrity as a first priority in meeting its
obligations of assuring unimpaired parks under the dedication
clause that speaks to assuring enjoyment, benefits and
education of present and future Canadians.
![Page 9: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Ecological principles to help us understand EI
Ecosystems are human constructs
Ecosystem based management or the Ecological Approach
is also a societal choice or policy
Ecosystems are nevertheless describable or characterized
because they do have organization, structure and
definable trajectories over time
![Page 10: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Clues to Understanding Ecosystems
• There are clear patterns to how life works, but not all patterns are clear.
• Ecosystems have interrelated structure, composition and function, at a range of scales.
• Ecosystems are not stable or in balance, they are dynamic and changing. The constant is Change – and it is occurring at many scales.
• System is greater than the sum of its parts
• People are a part of the ecosystem
![Page 11: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
A web based sample of Ecological Integrity
definitions
![Page 12: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Ecological Integrity (Siry)
Ecological integrity is understood as a series of interdependent ways of thinking and describing the world we observe. Thus an imaginative faculty is used for conceptualizing the physical and biological conditions of existence. (Siry’s Ecology Home Page)
![Page 13: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Ecological Integrity (EPA)
Ecological (or Biological) Integrity. The condition or "health" of an area, as defined by comparison of community structure and functions to those of unimpacted, least-impacted, or representative ("reference") areas.
(EPA, Bioindicators for Assessing Ecological Integrity of Prairie
Wetlands Report # EPA/ 600/ R-96/ 082 September 1995)
![Page 14: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Ecological Integrity (Maine Audubon)
Ecological Integrity is the ability of an ecosystem to support and maintain biological communities (assemblages of species) comparable to those found in unmanaged or relatively undisturbed habitats of the region. Ecological integrity includes both organisms as well as the physical elements of the ecosystem (soils, air, water, etc.) and ecological processes, such as forest succession and nutrient cycling within the forest.
![Page 15: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Ecological integrity (Bradford and Maude)
Ecological integrity, which includes hydrological integrity,
means the condition of ecosystems in which,
(a) the structure, composition and function of the ecosystems
are unimpaired by stresses from human activity,
(b) natural ecological processes are intact and self
sustaining, and
(c) the ecosystems evolve naturally.
![Page 16: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Ecological Integrity (Westra)In essence, it is an umbrella concept that includes the
following components: the ecosystem must retain the ability to deal with outside interference and, if necessary, regenerate itself following upon it; the systems’ integrity reaches a peak when the optimum capacity for the greatest number of possible ongoing development options, within its time/location, is reached; and, lastly, it should retain the ability to continue its ongoing change and development, unconstrained by human interruptions, past or present. (Westra 1994).
![Page 17: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Ecological Integrity (from Kay and Regier)
Ecological integrity is about three facets of self-organization
of ecological systems: (energy based)
a) current well being,
b) resiliency,
c) capacity to develop, regenerate and evolve.
![Page 18: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Ecological Integrity
Canada National Parks Act DefinitionCanada National Parks Act Definition“ecological integrity” means, with respect to a park,
a condition that is determined to be characteristic of its natural region and likely to persist, including abiotic components and the composition and abundance of native species and biological communities, rates of change and supporting processes.
![Page 19: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Key Points:Key Points:• Keep all working parts – abiotic elements as much as the
need to keep native species at viable population levels
• Manage at the right scale - managing for integrity must consider the larger ecosystems of which they are part, and long time horizons
• Maintain good vital signs - Ecosystems with integrity do not exhibit the trends associated with stressed ecosystem
.
![Page 20: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Setting goals and objectives
Park management Plan
![Page 21: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Goals, objectives and Goals, objectives and indicatorsindicators
Goals are defined as a set of future conditions that are relatively more general and broad based
Objectives are concrete expressions of the broader goals
Indicators are well defined (preferably numerically specific) targets for the goals
![Page 22: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Examples of Goals• Maintain viable populations of all native Maintain viable populations of all native
speciesspecies• Restore ecological processes, such as fire, Restore ecological processes, such as fire,
that have been modified or eliminated that have been modified or eliminated from the ecosystemfrom the ecosystem
![Page 23: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
T. NuddsT. Nudds
Adaptive managementAdaptive management
![Page 24: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Key Themes of today’s workshop
• Importance of Ecological Integrity Measurement for Protected
Area Management
• Advances in tool development to facilitate measuring
ecological outcomes
• Challenges of limited data and resources
• Experiences in measuring ecological integrity and using
results for adaptive management.
![Page 25: Ecological Integrity : what is it? How do we measure it? And why it is important! Nik Lopoukhine and Jeffrey Parish A beyond borders presentation](https://reader035.vdocument.in/reader035/viewer/2022070403/56649f2c5503460f94c4744a/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Housekeeping
• Revised Agenda• Materials Available• Change of Rooms in the Afternoon … to
4-2• Question and Answer Panel