Conservation Habitat Banking Options South of the Divide - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Conservation Habitat Banking Options

South of the Divide Conservation Action Program

SEIMA SustainTech April 12, 2016 Tom Harrison, Executive Director SODCAP Dave Hamilton, EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc.

Presentation Overview

• Background on South of the Divide (SoD)

– South of the Divide Conservation Action Program Inc. – Species at risk and conservation goals in the SoD

• Mitigation Hierarchy

– avoid → minimize → replace

• Habitat Conservation Banking

– Definitions – Existing programs – How can banks be successful? – Initial thoughts on habitat conservation bank in the SoD

• Questions, challenges, opportunities, next steps

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South of the Divide (SoD)

• The Milk River Watershed is

located in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana

• Milk River Watershed in SW

Saskatchewan is known as the South of the Divide (SoD)

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Photo credits: SODCAP

SoD Location

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South of the Divide Conservation Action Program (SODCAP)

• Partnership between stakeholders and government
• Goal of implementing actions relating to the South of

the Divide Multi‐Species Action Plan

• Formed: 2014
• Board members include:

– Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association – Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association – Crescent Point Energy – Ranchers Stewardship Alliance – SaskPower – Nature Conservancy of Canada – Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities – Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and Environment Canada

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South of the Divide Conservation Action Program (SODCAP)

SODCAP endeavors to:

“Cultivate partnerships that contribute to development of innovative land management practices…” “Enable species at risk to recover and thrive in balance with sustainable land and resource use in working landscapes…”

Photo credit: Krista Todd Photo credit: Krista Todd Photo credit: Tara Mulhern Davidson

Background – Multi‐Species Action Plan

• Environment Canada’s draft multi‐species

action plan includes nine species:

– Black‐footed Ferret – Burrowing Owl – Eastern Yellow‐bellied Racer – Greater Sage‐Grouse – Prairie Loggerhead Shrike – Mormon Metalmark – Mountain Plover – Sprague’s Pipit – Swift Fox

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SoD Species Richness

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Current Scope

• SODCAP is evaluating habitat conservation

banking options

– What is habitat conservation banking? – What needs to be in place? – Get feedback from stakeholders

• Habitat conservation banking for species at

risk and their habitat

– Promote a working landscape

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Photo credit: SODCAP

Approach

• 1. Use the hierarchical approach to manage

environmental impacts:

eliminate/avoid → minimize → replace

• 2. Investigate habitat conservation banking as a

new tool for:

– addressing residuals impacts and – impacts to SARA critical habitat

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Hierarchical Approach to Managing Environmental Impacts

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Habitat Banking Offset Mitigate Relocate Redesign

Eliminate Minimize Replace No Net Loss Net Gain

Offset vs. Habitat Conservation Bank

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• Similarities between offsets and habitat

conservation banks:

– Both only become options after steps have been taken to eliminate and minimize potential project effects on the environment

• Key differences between offsets and habitat

conservation banks:

– Habitat banks are not project specific; offsets are project specific – With a bank, habitat is created or enhanced before a project is undertaken

Definitions for Common Understanding: Habitat Conservation Banks

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• Habitat banking is a method for delivering habitat

compensation by building and pooling compensatory measures prior to any development actually taking place

• For the purposes of the SOD area, habitat

conservation banking is:

– a system whereby organisations or private companies restore, create, enhance, or conserve a habitat to sell tangible units of this habitat, termed credits, to a developer or permittee

Example from Other Jurisdictions

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Conservation bank created for giant garter snake (Thamnophis gigas) habitat on former agricultural land (Bunn et al. 2014)

Agricultural land before habitat creation Conservation bank after habitat creation completed

Offset vs. Bank – Temporal Considerations

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OFFSET SYSTEM HABITAT CONSERVATION BANK SYSTEM TIME

Time lag between project effect and offset becoming functional No time lag between project effect, bank becoming functional

Project A

Residual effect A Bank Credit A Habitat Conservation Bank (established and functional)

Project B

Residual effect B Bank Credit B

Project A

Residual effect A Offset A Offset A complete Monitoring

Project B

Residual effect B Offset B Offset B complete Monitoring

Offset vs. Bank – Landscape Considerations

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C B D A

Offset

Habitat Conservation Bank

C B D A X

Project Offset residual effect Low Med.

High

Legend Species richness: Habitat conservation bank

Habitat Conservation Banking in Canada

• Has not been widely used in Canada

– North Fraser Port Authority established a 6,500 m2 wetland habitat compensation bank in 1993 – City of Kelowna was attempting to set up habitat bank for the Mission Creek watershed

• Most formal and informal attempts at habitat

banking have been associated with Fisheries Act compensation (Hunt et al. 2011)

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Habitat Conservation Banking in Other Jurisdictions

• Habitat Conservation and Wetland banking

have been used in the US since 1977

– General habitat and species specific – Currently more that 500 wetland banks in the US, with another 500 proposed

• Becoming more in use in Europe
• Costa Rica had a Payment for Ecosystem

Services (PES) in place since 1996, which protects ~250,000 ha of forest

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What Needs to be In‐Place

• For habitat banking to be successful, Bovarnick et
• al. (2010), suggest that the following must be in

place:

• 1. Policy and regulatory foundations
• 2. Scope for integration with Environmental Impact

Assessment and permitting process

• 3. Potential demand for credits
• 4. Ability to develop banks and supply credits

Subsequent slides will consider these points within the context of the SoD

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• 1. Policy and Regulatory Foundations
• National conservation strategy will facilitate habitat bank

planning

– Draft Action Plan for Multiple SAR in the SoD identifies critical habitat

• Offsetting is allowed under legislation (e.g., Fisheries Act

2012) and policy (e.g., Environment Canada 2012)

– Consider this as a framework for conservation banks – Policy suggest conservation banks could be used as an extension

• f offsetting
• Conservation easements are already used (e.g., Ducks

Unlimited, Nature Conservancy of Canada, SODCAP)

• Implementation of international conventions (e.g., Ramsar

Convention [wetlands])

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• 2. Integration into Regulatory

Approval and Permitting Processes

• Current regulatory process requires implementation of

mitigation hierarchy and offsetting of residual impacts

• Offsets on a case‐by‐case basis

– Purchasing credits from a habitat conservation bank would also be on a case‐by‐case basis

• Regulatory and Permitting Structure

– A number of agencies involved in project review and approval, depending on the type of activity and location – e.g., SK Ministry of Environment, SK Ministry of the Economy, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, SK Water Security Agency

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• 3. Potential Demand for Credits
• Hypothetical examples of projects that could

effect SAR in the SoD, creating a potential demand for credits:

– Saskatchewan Highways proposes a new road or road upgrade – An RM proposes to construct an access road – Oil and gas exploration and development – SaskPower upgrades to energy distribution lines

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• 4. Ability to Develop Bank and

Provide Credits

• Establishing a habitat conservation bank:

– Ranchers, Grazing co‐operatives – SODCAP – NGOs (e.g., Ducks Unlimited, Nature Conservancy

• f Canada)

– First Nations through Treaty Land Entitlement – Potential opportunity with divesture of former PFRA lands

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• 4. Ability to Develop Bank and

Provide Credits

• This also requires a regulatory foundation for the:

– approval of conservation banks; – establishing the amount of credits available; – long‐term protection of conservation bank lands; and – oversight of credit/debit balance to minimize double‐ dipping of credit

• This type of regulatory mechanism is currently

absent from federal and provincial legislation

– Done informally with previous attempts at habitat conservation banking

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Challenges

• Legislative framework to support

establishment of conservation banks and demand for credits

• Developing clear and consistent methods for

calculating credits

– Define multipliers for a variety of factors

• Monitoring able to show improved productive

capacity of habitat

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Opportunities

• Habitat conservation banking is completed prior

to project impacts

– Provides assurance that impact mitigation has

• ccurred and has been done properly
• Banking may allow for habitat conservation on a

larger scale at a single site versus offsets which may be done at several smaller sites

• Habitat conservation banks create an opportunity

for landowners to turn SAR, or their restorable critical habitat, into assets

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Innovative Solutions in a Complex System

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Species at risk Critical habitat Protected areas Ranching Agriculture Regulations Energy distribution Community pastures Municipalities Habitat Conservation Bank

• Can a habitat conservation bank facilitate achievement
• f conservation strategies on a working landscape?

Oil and gas

Path Forward for Habitat Conservation Banking in the SoD

• Recognize the challenges
• Embrace the uncertainty
• Start defining scope and research needs in a

pragmatic fashion

• Remain innovative
• Pilot scale trial

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Photo credit: SODCAP

Summary

• SODCAP is working to “Enable species at risk

to recover and thrive in balance with sustainable land and resource use in working landscapes…”

• Habitat conservation banking is a potential

extension of the mitigation hierarchy that can assist with the management of SAR and the delivery of the SOD multi‐species action plan

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Thank you

• Questions ?

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