Archive for May, 2009

North America’s sub-arctic regions is a mosaic of snow topped mountains draped in extensive glaciers vast expanses of boreal and taiga forest. Often referred to as the last great frontier of North America the sub-arctic region of Canada and the United States is undergoing dramatic transformations as the poles continue warming from climate change. As this landscape continues to transform threats as well as opportunities will emerge for the communities who it call their home. I recommend visiting this beautiful region of the world before it is completely transformed.

As I prepared for a week vacation in the Yukon I packed warm waterproof clothing as I was told that late April to early May is the snow melt period. I braced myself for a week of overcast, wet, cold weather but luckily for me Mother Nature fooled us all and I was greeted with clear blue sunny skies. The temperature highs hovered around a whopping 13 to 20 degrees Celsius which is unheard of this time of year. Many Yukoners commented “we usually wait till July before we get this kind of weather”. It felt surreal to be tramping around in waist height snow in my t-shirt and enjoying ice-cream while in town.

Yukoners are responding by developing climate change adaptation plans and strategies to ready their communities for ongoing and future transformations. Although these efforts will help them cope with change, a number of concerns will be difficult to mitigate. Invasive species and pests such as the spruce bark beetle are making their appearance in the sub-arctic landscape and their propagation could have devastating effects. Water is also another wild card which will be difficult to plan for as the loss of permafrost could lead to the rapid disappearance of bodies of surface water, such as lakes and streams which will be absorbed by the ground like a sponge. Lower surface soil moistures could lead to the demise of the boreal forest as dried trees will cover the landscape like giant match sticks, increasing its vulnerability to forest fires. Alaska and the Yukon rely on their snow topped mountains and glaciers to supply them with clean drinking water. These fixtures on the landscape are slowly eroding away as glaciers for the most part continue to recede and the snow pack becomes thinner.

Increasing temperatures are also being viewed by many as new potential opportunities. Agriculture in the sub-arctic may become viable in the near future and a number of communities in the Yukon are exploring the potential for large and small scale farming as the growing season extends. Subsistence farming could be a climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy for northern communities as substantial energy is spent transporting fresh produce and food stuffs to higher latitudes year round.

I followed up my sub-arctic vacation experience by attending the 2009 American Water Resource Association Spring Specialty Conference held in Anchorage, Alaska which appropriately focused on water resources and climate change adaptation. The conference covered a broad range of topics ranging from modelling to managing arctic watersheds to urban hydrology. The conference organizers successfully balance technical and policy oriented presentations with opportunities to network and exchange information with peers. The main theme that emerged from the conference was the growing need to develop strategies to deal and cope with water management uncertainties. There are more questions than answers related to managing water resources in light of the climate induced changes that are being experienced. Communities in the arctic and sub-arctic regions are especially vulnerable as they grapple with the rapid changes that are impacting their way of life. In summary, better understanding how climate change will affect our water resources is imperative so that we can better cope with the impending changes that we will be facing in the near future.

So when you think 25 years in the future, what does a sustainable Winnipeg look like to you?

This is the question posed by IISD’s Christa Rust and Darren Swanson in a Vlog on www.speakupwinnipeg.com.

Speak up Winnipeg is a new website launched by the City of Winnipeg, as part of initiative to develop a 25-year plan for the development of the city.

Swanson and Rust provide a brief history of the modern sustainable development movement and the classic definition of sustainable development, as well as the popular three-pillars of sustainability: economic, social and environmental.

This city is urging all residents, including businesses and organizations like IISD, which has its head office in Winnipeg, to have their say.

Visit www.speakupwinnipeg.com and please read IISD’s feedback on the subject.

Conservation and conflict are intimately related. More often than not, the natural resources that conservation organizations seek to protect have competing (and often incompatible) economic and subsistence-use values; the values ascribed to those resources for biodiversity conservation sometimes stand in stark contrast to those valued by local populations for their survival, or for economic development by governments and businesses.

As a result, conflicts often arise between these competing interests. To complicate things, this competition for resources can take place in the context of broader regional and often violent conflicts that have a negative impact on biodiversity conservation.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Virunga National Park (PNVi) in DRC.

Stretching along the Congolese border with Uganda and Rwanda, PNVi has more bird, mammal and reptile species than any other park on the continent. But for the past two decades, the park and the surrounding area in North Kivu province have experienced near-constant violent conflict.

For the local population, the result has been widespread suffering: death, rape, displacement, sickness and starvation. Between August 1998 and April 2007, more people died from this conflict than from any other since the Second World War. Most of the casualties were civilians, and almost half children.

Beyond the humanitarian crisis, conflict has threatened the species, habitats and communities that depend on PNVi for their survival. The park is in crisis: its governance systems are weak; its boundaries are encroached upon by the surrounding local and refugee populations; its habitats are being destroyed by overfishing and charcoal production; and its animals are killed for meat and ivory.

For more that three years now, IISD’s Environment and Security team has been working with partners in the Albertine Rift to understand how conservationists can better work in conflict zones. Field experiences in PNVi, as well as in Kahuzi-Biega National Park to the south and Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area across the border in Uganda, have helped us develop guidance that conservationists can use to make their work more ‘conflict-sensitive’. For conservationists, this means:

a.More effectively addressing the root causes of natural resource-based conflict;

b. Minimizing the risk of their activities exacerbating conflict; and

c. Maximizing opportunities for peace-building.

This guidance has been laid out in a Conflict-Sensitive Conservation Practitioners Manual, a framework developed by IISD and its partners to help conservationists-both in the field and in head offices-integrate conflict-sensitivity into their work and their organizational culture.

In late April we presented a next-to-final draft of the Manual to practitioners in the region. Conservationists from all three parks joined us in Goma, North Kivu, for a two-day dissection of the Manual, during which we received extensive feedback on the framework as we have presented it. We are now in the process of pulling together the final edits, and should have the Manual ready and in the hands of conservation planners and field practitioners by the summer. Then on to the next phase; unfortunately there’s no lack of work to be done on the subject. We’ll keep you posted as the project progresses.

For feedback, please email us at csc@iisd.org.

Our technical partner on the project was the Conservation Development Centre, based in Nairobi: http://www.cdc.info/.

For more info on our work on conflict-sensitive conservation, please visit http://www.iisd.org/security/es/conflict/sensitive.asp.