Approaches to conservation in largely intact systems: realizing the potential of the landscape matrix

Boreal regions in Canada are globally significant, containing a large proportion of the world’s remaining intact forests, and supporting naturally-functioning ecosystems with a full complement of native biota. These areas represent some of the last opportunities to avert the conservation crises plaguing most other ecosystems, but they are also experiencing significant land-use pressures, and northern reaches are already showing effects of climate change.  Current conservation paradigms reflect a history of reactive efforts that while necessary, are insufficient. Planning proactively for conservation requires a precautionary approach that acknowledges the uncertainty inherent in all management decisions, and seeks to maintain or enhance resilience at very broad spatial scales.    A new scientific framework for large-scale conservation, the conservation-matrix model (CMM), exploits the strengths of systematic conservation planning and adaptive resource management through a systems approach.  Related land-use planning involves identification of a comprehensive protected areas network, with ecological benchmarks as a foundation, in combination with management regimes that systematically enhance learning through active adaptive management.  The CMM recognizes the contribution that all landscape components can make to achieving conservation, offers potential to maintain the full range of natural and cultural values that intact regions currently support, and promotes innovative management based on shared stewardship.  This presentation will provide examples of application of this framework and associated tools across boreal regions of Canada, including the Ontario Far North and Plan Nord initiatives, the U.S. partnered Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, and the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, heralded as the largest conservation agreement in the world.