Common use of Protected Areas Clause in Contracts

Protected Areas. Goal 2: The completion of a network of protected areas that, taken as a whole, represents the diversity of ecosystems within the boreal region and serves to provide ecological benchmarks. Overview 1. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs are committed to jointly advocating for, and working with governments, aboriginal groups, communities and stakeholders to accelerate the completion of protected areas networks across Canada’s boreal forests. Within each jurisdiction, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will work with governments, aboriginal groups, communities and others to establish (where necessary) and expedite processes to complete such protected areas networks in a manner consistent with the principles and criteria described herein. While doing so, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will concurrently work to jointly identify proposed protected area proposals that can be supported, provide these as input into relevant government processes, and advocate for their adoption. While FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs believe there are certain principles and criteria that should be applied across the boreal, they recognize that the processes used in each jurisdiction will vary to reflect regional differences. 2. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs agree that Canada be a world-leader in conservation and protection of boreal biodiversity through a mix of conservation measures, the completion of a protected areas network and implementation of third party certification of sustainable forest management practices. As part of this, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs agree there is a need for a meaningful increase to the current level of protection throughout the boreal region including increases in both the allocated and unallocated regions of the boreal. 3. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs recognize that final decisions on protected areas rest with governments and that the process used to make those decisions will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. They also believe that if such decisions are to be durable they need to enjoy broad based support. 4. To ensure that the network of protected areas for the boreal enjoys broad based support, it will be important that the public process used in each jurisdiction collaboratively engage stakeholders based on best practices and base outcomes on best available information. The intent is to finalize a network of protected areas in a manner that seeks to avoid negative impacts on timber supply and, wherever possible, minimizes, mitigates, and addresses impacts on affected parties- such as tenure or license holders. 5. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will undertake the following specific actions in support of the completion of a network of protected areas that represent the diversity of ecosystems, assists in protecting the habitats of species at risk such as woodland caribou, and serves to provide ecological benchmarks within Canada’s boreal region: a) FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will actively and jointly work in each jurisdiction of Canada’s boreal to encourage governments, aboriginal peoples, communities and others to engage in actions similar to those described above and to encourage others to support those actions; b) In undertaking this work, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will prioritize those jurisdictions and processes they will focus on based on a joint assessment of political and ecological/economic risks and opportunities; c) Where government processes are underway in any jurisdiction, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs representatives in that jurisdiction will engage with those processes in a manner consistent with the principles, criteria, and outcomes described in this document; d) concurrent with this, in each jurisdiction, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs representatives will work collaboratively to develop proposals for protected areas that can be jointly supported (this includes identifying gaps, maps, potential impacts, and potential solutions), make these available as input into the relevant government processes dealing with the completion of a protected areas network for Canada’s boreal forests, and jointly advocate for their adoption and implementation3; e) as FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs are working on developing CBFA Proposed Protected Area, they will concurrently identify what elements of such proposals can be implemented without the need for government approval and the steps they will take both individually and jointly in the absence of provincial government action to advance the completion of protected areas networks for boreal forests or in the event that such government processes are not successfully concluded in a timely manner; and f) in the absence of government action to complete protected areas networks for boreal forests, or in the event that such government processes are not successfully concluded in a timely manner, FPAC Members will respect within their forest management plans those elements of any CBFA Proposed Protected Area to the extent practicable without the need for government approval and FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will continue to work together to develop government support; g) while work is underway to complete a network of protected areas in Canada’s boreal forests, FPAC Members will use certification processes to identify and manage sites of special conservation value; and h) if a government process produces Government Designated Protected Areas that are different than any CBFA Proposed Protected Area within the same planning region, 3 For areas proposed as potential protected areas under the CBFA, it is the intent of the signatories that protected areas are areas free of industrial activity. Circumstances may occur where management activity (e.g. timber harvesting) is mandated by government to address forest health considerations. It is recognized that ENGOs do not support any industrial activity in protected areas and as such, may publicly oppose such management activity mandated by a government. At the same time, it is also recognized that as a result of potential implications of forest health considerations to timber values outside of protected areas, FPAC and FPAC Members may publicly support such management activity mandated by a government. Neither ENGO opposition nor FPAC/FPAC Member support for such management activity mandated by a government shall be considered contrary to the spirit and intent of the CBFA. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs acknowledge those government outcomes of the Government Designated Protected Area will replace such CBFA Proposed Protected Area so long as they are consistent both ecologically and in terms of impacts on FPAC Members. If they are not consistent, the CBFA Proposed Protected Area will continue to be respected to the extent practicable without the need for government approval, FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs will work together and with governments to seek necessary measures to address such inconsistency, and FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs may publicly communicate the nature of the gaps that need to be addressed to achieve consistency. In these circumstances, the assessment of what is practicable will include a consideration of what is necessary to fill the ecological gaps between the outcomes of the Government Designated Protected Area and the CBFA Proposed Protected Area and how to seek to avoid incremental impacts to FPAC members seeking to respect both the Government Designated Protected Areas and the CBFA Proposed Protected Areas. 6. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs believe that in completing a network of protected areas in Canada’s boreal region, it is important that the general approach used in each jurisdiction be consistent with the following4: a) developing a set of mutually agreed upon biological, ecological, and cultural criteria; b) undertaking a gap analysis relative to current protected areas in Canada’s boreal forests based on such mutually agreed upon biological/ecological criteria ; c) undertaking an identification of candidate sites to fill those identified gaps; d) overlaying the gap analysis and site identification with a consideration of mutually agreed upon social and economic criteria; and e) taking into consideration current conservation measures (both regulatory and voluntary), current protected areas, and new protected areas likely to be created elsewhere in the boreal (i.e. in other jurisdictions). 7. FPAC, FPAC Members, and ENGOs believe that the criteria referred to in Section 6(a) should include (but not necessarily be restricted to) the following: a) representation of boreal forest ecosystems (within the Boreal Zone, and using provincial ecosystem classifications) across their natural range of variation, in protected areas; b) maintaining viable populations of native species in natural patterns of abundance and distribution across the landscape; c) sustaining ecological and evolutionary processes within their natural ranges of variability; and d) other factors such as building a conservation network resilient to environmental change, protecting aboriginal cultural values, the ability to address current and emerging forest health considerations etc.