Conservation Planning for Climate Change Project Progress

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The Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program (OCCP) and Thompson-Nicola Conservation Collaborative (TNCC) are working together on a multi-year Conservation Planning for Climate Change initiative (CPCC). The goal of the CPCC is to connect conservation planning, land use, and climate change modelling to support sustainable land use decisions throughout the Thompson and Okanagan watersheds. There are three areas of focus for this project: grassland and wetland research, conservation and climate policy review, and Indigenous knowledge-sharing. The team is working with the University of British Columbia Okanagan and additional experts.

Wetlands

To better understand the location, extent, and persistence of wetlands, the research team is developing a machine learning predictive wetland model for the Thompson Okanagan. The model is trained using remote satellite imagery and known occurrences of wetlands. With a high degree of accuracy, the model is predicting the location and extent of wetlands that were previously not mapped and also highlighting their potential connectivity to other wetlands. These connection corridors are important not only for wetland resilience but also to support wildlife movements. Next steps are to use historical climate data to build a model that will predict future wetland viability based on a variety of climate change scenarios.

The resilience of wetlands largely depends on whether they are groundwater fed or surface fed. To gain more insight into hydrology, sampling sites will be installed in the Thompson and Okanagan regions to measure wetland water budgets and assess their vulnerability. This knowledge is a critical component necessary to support planners, managers, and other decision-makers, in identifying high risk wetlands that are resilient to the effects of climate change, and in most need of protection and/or restoration.

Grasslands

While grasslands occupy less than 1% of the provincial land base, they provide critical habitat to more than 30% of species deemed as threatened or endangered. Grassland conservation and mapping has been challenging as grasslands are highly diverse ecosystems that can occur in fragmented patches. that, due to a number of factors, can occur in small, but valuable, disconnected patches. This project is developing a predictive model similar in process to the wetland model but using different parameters. In addition, the research team will be is also assessing the potential carbon storage of these grasslands. based. To date, an estimated 67,000 ha of grasslands, in and around Kamloops, are storing over 400,000 kg/m2 of carbon. That is the equivalent of approximately 625,000 litres of gasoline consumed1. Much of this is at low elevation where development pressures are at their highest. Work on this project continues to support conservation and management of grasslands in the region to support biodiversity and regional climate change adaptation plans.

Conservation and Climate Policies

To better understand how to incorporate CPCC’s grassland and wetland research into effective policies, a review and technical analysis of current conservation and climate policies is being conducted. During this process, planners and land use managers in the Thompson Okanagan will be invited surveyed to share their challenges and best practices in policy creation and implementation. Key findings and recommendations will be shared through facilitated knowledge-sharing workshops, presentations, and a public report.

Indigenous Land Use

TNCC prioritizes respectful Indigenous engagement that is rooted in an Ethical Space framework. As such, we are continuing to build relationships with the many First Nations and Bands in the region and have approached them in the spirit of reciprocity.

We are currently working with Indigenous partners to identify overlapping conservation and cultural areas to better inform future decisions and land use planning. While we are not the holders of this sensitive cultural information, we want to ensure that these overlapping areas are highlighted and in future land use policies.

This project supports future implementation of policies that affirm the Rights of Indigenous Peoples under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and British Columbia’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

CPCC Project