Furthermore

Volunteers Help Conserve Great Lakes Marshes
by Jon McCracken, Bird Studies Canada

Degradation and loss of marsh habitat continue to threaten the many birds and amphibians that rely on the Great Lakes ecosystems. However, little is known about the population trends and specific habitat needs of many species of marsh-dependent wildlife. Following 2 years of pilot work, Bird Studies Canada launched the Marsh Monitoring Program across the Great Lakes Basin in 1995 in partnership with Environment Canada and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The program’s primary goal is to monitor populations of marsh birds and amphibians across wetlands in this unique region by engaging the skills of hundreds of volunteers.

More than 300 volunteers follow a standardized protocol, guided by detailed written and audio training materials. Surveys are conducted at semicircular stations of 100-metre radius positioned along routes. Nocturnal surveys for calling frogs and toads are conducted three times during spring and early summer. Evening bird surveys are conducted twice during the height of the breeding season using taped vocalizations to elicit responses from several secretive species. Participants also describe the habitat features at their survey stations. An important aspect of the program is its ability to determine habitat associations of marsh birds.

Based upon the first 7 years of the program, significant declines have been detected in populations of American coot, common moorhen, sora, black tern, pied-billed grebe, sedge wren, and even the ubiquitous red-winged blackbird. Similar declines have occurred for chorus frog and American toad. Significant increases were detected for common yellowthroat and mallard. Further analysis reveals that some of these population changes are attributed, in part, to annual fluctuations in Great Lakes water levels. Species that show consistent year-to-year declines warrant closer scrutiny and perhaps immediate conservation attention.

Volunteer-supplied data enable scientific analysis, which is then made available for assessment purposes and conservation planning. By participating, program volunteers make significant contributions to management plans at the local and individual lake-basin scales, and help in the overall assessment of wetland health across the Great Lakes Basin. Moreover, the program’s data serve to increase awareness of marsh bird, amphibian, and wetland habitat conservation issues among scientists, and regulators and the public.

In keeping with the North American Waterbird Conservation Plan, it is envisaged that a coordinated marsh bird monitoring program will develop across North America.
In the meantime, recent program reports and other publications are available in the Library on Bird Studies Canada’s Web site at www.bsc-eoc.org.

For more information, contact Steve Timmermans, Aquatic Surveys Scientist, Bird Studies Canada, 115 Front Street, Port Rowan, Ontario N0E 1M0, (519) 586-3531, stimmermans@bsc-eoc.org.

Mangroves: Life on the Edge
by Alfredo Quarto, Mangrove Action Project

“Amphibious rainforests.” “Coastal nurseries.” “Roots of the sea.” Not bad monikers for an ecosystem once widely described as a foul-smelling, insect-infested wasteland. Mangrove forests are increasingly recognized and appreciated as one of Earth’s most productive and biologically diverse habitats. Given their previous reputation, however, they also are among the world’s most threatened habitats from decades of abuse and exploitation.

Thriving in two worlds at once, salt-tolerant mangroves accommodate the needs of both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. Their semisubmerged tangle of roots offers refuge and nursery areas for fish, crabs, shrimp, shellfish, and other aquatic species. Loosely interwoven branches provide hundreds of waterfowl, shorebirds, waterbirds, and songbirds with nesting and feeding sites adjacent to critical water resources. Some Latin American countries have recorded more than 500 bird species in their mangrove areas, which likewise host manatees, monkeys, amphibians, and other fauna.

Mangroves supply food, tannins, fuel wood, medicinal ingredients, and construction materials to coastal communities. They also protect shoreline property from storm damage and erosion and prevent silt and polluted runoff from reaching coral reefs and seagrass beds.

Mangrove forests once blanketed coastlines and estuaries throughout tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Isles of Oceania, , but now less than half, or approximately 18 million hectares, remain. Overharvesting for timber and charcoal, urban expansion, pollution, coastal road construction, industrial development, and large-scale shrimp farming are culpable, with the latter potentially accounting for up to 30 percent of current destruction.

The rapidly expanding shrimp-aquaculture industry, largely fueled by voracious consumer demands in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe, poses one of the gravest threats to the world’s remaining mangrove forests and the wildlife and communities they support. An estimated 1 million hectares of coastal wetlands, including mangroves, have been cleared worldwide for conversion to shrimp farms that range from one-half hectare to hundreds of hectares each. A telling sign of this boom-and-bust industry is that approximately 250,000 hectares now lie abandoned due to diseased shrimp and polluted waters. In Latin America, barbed wire and armed guards posted around shrimp farms prohibit local fishing communities from accessing the mangrove forests they traditionally used. Also displaced are native nursery grounds of aquatic species, including shrimp, important to local economies.

Since 1992, Mangrove Action Project (MAP), an international nongovernmental organization, has worked with partners worldwide to halt mangrove destruction and promote sustainable alternatives. Their growing concern is the rapid proliferation of shrimp farms in Brazil, which houses the world’s second largest expanse of mangrove forest with over 1 million hectares. Brazil produced 60,000 tons of farmed shrimp in 2002, exporting 90 percent. This tonnage will likely more than double by 2005 as shrimp farmers from other countries continue to leave their beleaguered coasts to start here anew.

The MAP, therefore, conducted one of its regional “In the Hands of Fishers” workshops in Brazil in May 2003, bringing together more than 60 stakeholders from Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. All were members of grassroots organizations and fishing communities and active in the mangrove network known as Red Manglar. Participants discussed common mangrove conservation concerns, particularly Brazil’s burgeoning shrimp-aquaculture industry, exchanged information, shared lessons learned, formed new partnerships, and developed regionally coordinated projects. The World Conservation Union, Tropical Rainforest Programme - The Netherlands, and the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation funded the workshop, and MAP and the Brazilian nongovernmental organization Terramar co-coordinated it with assistance from Red Manglar members.

Just as mangroves are the “roots of the sea,” this expanded network of partners will continue to strengthen and spread the roots of the mangrove conservation movement throughout Latin America.

For more information, contact Alfredo Quarto, Executive Director, Mangrove Action Project, P.O. Box 1854, Port Angeles, Washington 98362-0279, (360) 452-5866, mangroveap@olympus.net, www.earthisland.org/map/map.html.

An Agricultural Policy Framework for Canada
by Duncan Morrison, Ducks Unlimited Canada

Today's consumers are asking hard questions—and rightly so—about food safety and the environment, and they are demanding answers from the entire agri-food supply chain. How successful we are in meeting and beating these challenges will, to a large degree, determine our competitive edge in both domestic and global agri-food marketplaces.

That is why a new vision for the Canadian agriculture and agri-food industry is so urgently needed. To that end, in June 2002 in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, provincial and territorial ministers of agriculture and I agreed on the principles of an action plan to put Canada first in the eyes of consumers as the world leader in food safety, innovation, and environmentally responsible production.

This Agricultural Policy Framework which we are developing has five key elements: business risk, food safety, environment, sector renewal, and science and innovation. Together, these elements form an integrated approach to help the Canadian agri-food industry be front and centre in the world marketplace.
—The Honorable Lyle Vanclief, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, at the Moving the Markets Forum, Toronto, Ontario, February 2003.

Since Minister Vanclief's speech, two significant events have transpired that further impact his message. Front and centre was the Spring 2003 closure of important international borders to Canadian beef. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has since concluded the investigation of a single case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “mad cow disease,” in Alberta. This single case was detected as part of Canada’s ongoing BSE Surveillance Program and was the cause behind the border closings. Canada's recovery as a leading provider of the world's beef supply is slowly moving forward in the wake of this isolated incident.

However, quietly building momentum in the large shadow of the BSE crisis was the move by an increasing number of Canadian agricultural producers to work with governments to strengthen their ability to protect the environment. These producers understand that environmental stewardship is the key to both long-term sustainability and profitability. Through the APF, new programs will build on environmental practices to enhance air, water, and soil quality and biodiversity conservation to improve the ability for agriculture and the environment to coexist in a way that provides benefits to both.

Key components of the Environment Element of the APF include Greencover Canada and Environmental Farm Plans (EFPs). The EFPs, voluntarily prepared by farm families, will highlight environmental strengths on their farm, identify areas of environmental concern, and set realistic goals and timetables to improve environmental conditions. Once completed, the EFPs will then be supported by Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs), which will target improvements such as riparian area management, the establishment of shelterbelts, and grazing management.

Farmers have expressed substantial interest in EFPs and the Greencover Program. With all provinces signing on to the APF and with several of those provinces also signing Implementation Agreements, the Government of Canada is helping Canadian producers take steps to do their part in protecting the environment.

The Greencover Canada Program is a 5-year, $110 million, Government of Canada initiative to convert environmentally sensitive land to perennial cover. One component of Greencover is the conversion of environmentally sensitive land to perennial cover. Other components focus on critical areas, shelterbelts, and technical assistance. With the assistance of organizations such as Ducks Unlimited Canada, Greencover will also allow producers to improve grassland management practices, protect water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance biodiversity and wildlife habitat. In return for the preapproved conversion of their land, landowners receive advice and financial incentives from the government to help the transition.

"Greencover has the potential to improve wildlife habitat on more than 1 million hectares of land in the next 5 years. If it is well received by producers, we are hopeful that an even bigger program will be developed to follow this one," said Dr. Brian Gray, Ducks Unlimited Canada's director of conservation programs. "We also hope that a BMP for wetland restoration and conservation will be adopted into the process."

For more information, contact Dr. Brian Gray, Director of Conservation Programs, Ducks Unlimited Canada, P.O. Box 1160, Stonewall, Manitoba R0C 2Z0, (204) 467-3000, b_gray@ducks.ca.

Sustainable Forests, Sustainable Futures
by Darron Collins, World Wildlife Fund

In Peru, the 68 million hectares of forest that carpet the uppermost reaches of the Amazon basin are some of the most biologically diverse in the world—a 1-hectare plot can harbor over 400 species of trees. In the 1.8-million-hectare Manu Biosphere Reserve alone, some 925 bird species have been recorded, making it one of the most species-rich protected areas in the world. Between 1990 and 2000, however, Peru lost an average of 269,000 hectares of forest cover annually, mainly due to illegal or unsustainable harvesting of big-leaf mahogany (exported primarily to the United States) and conversion to pasture and agriculture.

A standard solution to such an ecological crisis might entail creating “no use” areas, with imaginary walls or very real armed guards to keep humans out. However, in the Peruvian Amazon—a region that figures prominently in the country’s economic future and whose population depends heavily on its forest-based resources—strict protection alone would be ineffective at holding change and disturbances at bay. Instead, a more holistic solution is needed.

To that end, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international nongovernmental organization, is coordinating an ambitious forest conservation project in the region, supported by a 5-year, $9.6 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Peru Mission. The Sustainable Forestry Development Center project (CEDEFOR, by its Spanish acronym) employs sustainable forest management as a mechanism for balancing economic development and wildlife conservation and for addressing the threats facing the region’s ecosystems. Partners, especially the Peruvian government and local communities, will be essential to ensuring CEDEFOR’s success.

The WWF and local partners have been catalysts in the reform of the country’s forestry sector. In the past, 1,000-hectare concessions were unregulated, surreptitiously distributed, and aided in the laundering of illegally harvested timber. Under the reformed system, they are openly and democratically declared and designed to protect the region’s ecosystems. Still federally managed and enforced, these concessions require owners to develop forest management plans, implement reduced-impact logging, and make long-term financial and conservation commitments. Typically, concessions are for 25,000 to 30,000 hectares (50,000-hectare maximum) and last 40 years with options for renewal.

But concessions are simple contracts. Local people ultimately drive conservation, so CEDEFOR is mobilizing Amazonian communities to form small-scale, sustainable, private timber businesses. Those who were once exploited as laborers for the forest’s destruction now own a stake in their future and in the sustainability of the forests. Over the next 5 years, CEDEFOR will guide some 100 local businesses in preparing sustainable forest management plans, forest inventories, and biodiversity assessments and will bolster their business acumen. Qualifying businesses will seek certification, allowing them to market their timber as ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable. Certification is an increasingly effective conservation mechanism as consumers worldwide become more concerned with how and where forest products are procured.

For the forests of the Peruvian Amazon, creating an untouchable museum piece is not feasible, nor is allowing open “commons” to be converted to agriculture and pasture. Such exhaustive pursuits offer little hope for the region’s people, and even less for the bird species with which they share these forests. Sustainable forest management, however, offers long-term hope for both.

For more information, contact Meg Symington, Director for Forests and Freshwater, Latin America and the Caribbean, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037-9211, (202) 778-9727, meg.symington@wwfus.org.

Something Ventured, Something Gained
by Krista De Groot and Barbara Robinson, Canadian Wildlife Service

For many years, conservationists across the continent have used the North American Waterfowl Management Plan’s (Plan) joint venture model to bring together diverse partners to conserve wildlife and its habitat. The Canadian Intermountain Joint Venture, encompassing the south and central interior of British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, was recently endorsed by the Canadian Council of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. This makes it the fourth habitat joint venture in Canada, the others being the Plan’s Pacific Coast, Prairie Habitat, and Eastern Habitat Joint Ventures.

The Canadian Intermountain Region is a landscape of markedly varied elevation and climatic conditions. This has resulted in an exceptional diversity of habitat types including desert, grasslands, shrub-steppe, riparian, wetlands, dry and moist coniferous forests, and alpine tundra. Due to the wide range of habitats, it contains one of the most diverse breeding bird faunas of any Canadian ecoregion. The region is home to 373 bird species. Of this number, 254 species breed in the area and 83 species occur during migration and/or in winter. In addition to its importance to birds, the region hosts a diverse range of other taxa containing over 1,500 species of native vascular plants, 43 of native freshwater fish, 29 of amphibians and reptiles, and 94 of native terrestrial mammals.

The Region is also a managed working landscape that sustains growing human populations. Resource-based industries, including crop agriculture, ranching, forestry, energy, mining, tourism, and recreation, form the economic base of most of the communities within the joint venture’s boundaries. However, these activities, which support local economies and urban communities, can have a profound influence on bird and other wildlife populations.

The joint venture was established to address the challenges of sustaining healthy populations of birds and other wildlife by providing regional implementation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, the Canadian Shorebird Conservation Plan, the Framework for Landbird Conservation in Canada, and Wings Over Water: Canada’s Conservation Program for Seabirds and Waterbirds. It complements, augments, and facilitates existing conservation initiatives and partnerships and links internationally to the Intermountain West Joint Venture in the United States to conserve shared bird populations.

Many organizations have already invested significant resources and energy into conservation efforts in the region, but realizing the joint venture’s vision requires ongoing commitment. The joint venture provides an opportunity to celebrate our conservation successes and use our existing resources more efficiently through increased collaboration and communications. Joining forces with new partners will help all stakeholders address the challenges ahead.

For more information or to obtain a copy of the Canadian Intermountain Joint Venture Prospectus, contact Barbara Robinson, Communications Coordinator, NAWMP Implementation Office, Canadian Wildlife Service, 3rd Floor, 351 St. Joseph Boulevard, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0H3, (819) 953-9414, barbara.robinson@ec.gc.ca.

Canadian Intermountain Joint Venture Partners

Bird Studies Canada
BC Cattlemen’s Association
BC Hydro
British Columbia Field Ornithologists
British Columbia Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
British Columbia Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection
Canadian Wildlife Service - Environment Canada
Ducks Unlimited Canada
East Kootenay Conservation Program
Federation of British Columbia Naturalists
Grasslands Conservation Council of British Columbia
Ktunaxa Kinbasket Tribal Council
Lignum Limited
Parks Canada
South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program
Teck Cominco Limited
The Land Conservancy of British Columbia
The Nature Conservancy of Canada
The Nature Trust of British Columbia
University of British Columbia