Title
Caribou and the National Boreal Standard: Report of the FSC Canada Science Panel
Author(s)
Elston Dzus; Justina Ray; Ian Thompson; and Chris Wedeles
Published
2010
Abstract
FSC Canada convened a Science Panel to undertake a structured review of the adequacy of the National Boreal Standard (FSC 2004, hereafter referred to as the NBS or Standard) in addressing caribou conservation issues, and to provide recommendations on appropriate measures to improve the Standard’s consideration of the integration of caribou and forest management. This report fulfills the Panel’s mandate. The recommendations provided in this report are the result of a substantial amount of contemplation and deliberation and it is now the role of FSC Canada and its stakeholders to consider implementation of the Panel’s findings. In general, the Panel found that the NBS is a very thoughtful document, but that it could be improved with some additions and modifications to address concerns regarding caribou conservation. The Panel has recommended that 18 of the Standard’s existing indicators be modified and that five new indicators be developed. The new indicators focus on: decline in relative abundance of conifer forest communities (especially in eastern Canada), planned aggregation of landscape disturbances, collaborative efforts related to caribou management, and addressing the forest companies’ roles in gathering and using caribou-related information. Ideally the recommendations suggested by the Panel will be adopted as a suite of changes; as a whole they have the potential to result in a greater evolution of the Standard than would occur if they were to be adopted piecemeal. In undertaking this task, the Panel found it useful to consider potential improvements to the Standard by reviewing a number of mechanisms thought to influence caribou habitat and populations. Through that exercise, the Panel reviewed the hypothesized impacts of climate change, predation, hunting, fire, habitat loss, habitat change, linear features, and cumulative effects. The topic of deepest concern to the Panel, not presently addressed in the Standard, is that of cumulative disturbances. Several indicators should be modified to incorporate concerns related to cumulative effects. Threats to the continued persistence of boreal caribou are heightened in situations where multiple disturbances exist and where substantial portions of their range exists in a disturbed state. In many, if not most areas in which forest management overlaps with boreal caribou populations, the populations are affected by multiple management plans that are rarely coordinated. Several of the Panel’s recommended changes to the Standard deal with cumulative disturbances, including the development of a framework to evaluate relative risk to caribou populations. Generally, the Standard does not explicitly address the state of wildlife populations. It instead relies on the assumption that a focus on habitat management should provide a sufficient means to conserve populations, recognizing that forest managers do not have direct responsibility for managing populations. Further, the Panel recognizes that other (non-forestry) activities on the same landbase can add to (or even dwarf) the impacts of forest management. In this light, there is a limit to how much can reasonably be expected of forest companies with respect to the longterm maintenance of caribou populations. While the Panel recognizes that the primary management domain of forest companies is habitat, it believes that to address concerns regarding caribou and other species at risk (SAR), some evolution of the traditional bounds of forest company activities is necessary. Therefore, in several instances, the Panel recommends incorporation of requirements into the Standard specifically intended to foster management of caribou. In addition, some of the Panel’s recommended changes require companies to ‘work within their sphere of influence’ to achieve progress in various aspects of population management (e.g., monitoring, modelling), emphasizing an important role that forest companies can play in helping safeguard caribou populations, not just caribou habitat. The Panel has been careful not to burden forest companies with excessive requirements, while at the same time recognizing that, in their role as managers or co-managers of FSC-certified forest lands, there is scope for companies to broaden somewhat the role they usually play in resource management. Consistent with the Panel’s recommendations, FSC Canada must reconcile the need to develop Standards that raise the bar with regards to forest management and contribute to sustainability while still being achievable. It is, however, vital that in the process FSC make clear any tradeoffs to caribou conservation that might occur as a result of this balancing process. The Panel recognizes that caribou are only one of a number of SAR, about which forest managers must be concerned and that the process of reviewing the Standard through the lens of a single species will be viewed as precedent-setting by some. The Panel stresses that conservation dividends will be realized by adopting a caribou perspective for resource management by virtue of the sensitivity of this species to large-scale disturbance and its requirement for management regimes that are broad in time and space. After careful review of the Standard, the Panel believes that its recommended revisions will benefit many species other than caribou. In addition to recommending changes to the Standard itself, this review identified a number of ways in which the assessment and auditing process should be strengthened. These include: providing training to assessors to help them understand and take caribou issues into account in assessments; developing means to address comparability among assessors in their interpretation of key elements of the Standard; and clarifying linkages between planning and implementation components of the Standard.
Full Citation
Dzus, E., J. Ray, I. Thompson, and C. Wedeles (2010). Caribou and the National Boreal Standard: Report of the FSC Canada Science Panel. Canada: FSC Canada.

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