| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
Far northwestern British Columbia is one of the few regions in the province without a land use plan. However, triggered by the 2004 Taku decision by the Supreme Court of Canada and a March 2008 Framework Agreement between Taku River Tlingit (TRT) First Nation and the Province of B.C., land use planning for the approximately 3 million ha Atlin-Taku area is now well underway. So too is climate change. Under a changing climate, northwestern B.C. can expect major transformations in biodiversity on land and in water and across all levels (genes, species, ecosystems, and the interactions among them). Land use planning in British Columbia has to date not incorporated potential large-scale environmental change. Any land use or conservation planning that professes to be long term must address climate change and its implications. Planning should not consider merely the current environment and contemporary plant and animal communities, but also and more fundamentally, future environmental scenarios underpinned by the more or less permanent, physical components of the plan area‘s landscapes and waterscapes—the different types of bedrock geology, physiography, landforms, lakes and streams. This report outlines some environmental change-related principles for conservation and land use planning, for the Atlin-Taku area of northwestern B.C. It attempts to answer the question, How would you incorporate climate change in a lasting conservation strategy or land use plan? |
