Delivered by Vic Adamowicz, Research Director, Alberta Land Institute and Professor, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta

1. Alberta Land Stewardship:
Biodiversity Offsets as a Component of Land-use Planning
Vic Adamowicz, Research Director, ALI
Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology
University of Alberta
Thanks to Tom Goddard, Marian Weber and
Warren Noga for Comments and Slides

2. Overview
• Alberta Context
• Land Use Framework / Opportunities
• Land Use Challenges
• Boreal, Wetlands / Prairie, Grassland
• Programs, Pilots and Initiatives
• Reflections on Offsets in the
Alberta Context
• Scarcity and Ecosystem Services
• Summary
www.landman.ca/landman_support/land_use/
Map%20handout.pdf

3. Land Use Planning - Governance
• Provincial
• Land Use Framework; Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA)
• Pilots, Market Based Instruments (offsets)
• Institute for Agriculture, Forestry and the Environment (?)
• Regional Plans
• Cumulative Effects;
• Guidance; Triggers / Thresholds;
• New Wetlands Policy
• “Ratios”; Delivery Agents
• Federal
• DFO
• Environment Canada
• SARA
• NEB

4. International Think Tank on MarketBased Instruments to Preserve, Support
and Enhance Ecological Goods and
Services
Vic Adamowicz
Department of Rural Economy
University of Alberta

5. Institute for Agriculture, Forestry and the Environment
The IAFE’s mandate is to catalyze and coordinate
the development of a policy framework that
harness market forces to improve environmental
performance in the renewable resource sector. It
has four strategic mandate areas:

1.
2.
3.
4.
Develop a Conservation and Stewardship Strategy
Market-Based Approaches for Environmental
Stewardship
Documenting Environmental Integrity
Innovation

6. Alberta: Regional Plans
Regional Plans Will:
1. Reflect the vision, principles and outcomes of the Land-use Framework
2. Define regional outcomes (economic, environmental and social) and a broad
plan for land and natural resource use for public and private lands within the
region
3. Align provincial strategies and policies at the regional level
4. Consider the input from First Nations and Metis communities, stakeholders,
and the public
5. Determine specific trade-offs and appropriate land and natural resource
management for specific landscapes within a region
6. Define the cumulative effects management approach for the region and
identify targets and thresholds
7. Provide direction and context for local plans within the region
8. Recognize the authority and role of municipalities in local decision-making
9. Be approved by Cabinet, thereby becoming government land-use policies
for the regions
10. Will be subject to regular reviews and public reporting: every five years –
plan updates and reports on implementation; every ten years: complete plan
reviews (Source AB LUF, Pg 26.)

8. Emerging Partnerships and Experience
• Partnerships
• Industry / NGO Network
• South East Alberta Conservation Offsets Pilot
• Research (AI-Family; ALI; etc.)
• Monitoring (ABMI, etc.)
• Experience
• Carbon Offsets
• Wetlands
• Alberta Conservation Association
• South East Alberta Conservation Offset Pilot
• Water Trading

9. Pressures
• Boreal
• Cumulative Effects
• Energy, Forestry, Climate Change
• Caribou, Wetlands
• Grasslands
• Cumulative Effects
• Multi-SAR
• Energy. Agriculture
• Wetlands
• Historical trends
• Development
www.landman.ca/landman_support/land_use/
Map%20handout.pdf

10. Source: Environment Canada, 2011, Page 5

11. Woodland Caribou in Alberta
ASRD and ACA 2010
http://environment.gov.ab.ca/i
nfo/library/8042.pdf

12. Net Present Value Map:
Schneider et al
Conservation Biology
2010

13. Objectives?
• Biodiversity / “Habitat”
• Disturbance
• Representation
• Linear Features
• Intactness
• Dynamics
• Caribou Populations
• Growth rate (“lambda” and “habitat lambda”)
• Density (historical density?)
• Strategies (predator control, reclamation, etc.)
• Location
• Timing
• Public Land

14. “White Zone” (Prairie) Issues
• Wetlands Conservation
• Grasslands Conservation
• Human Population Increases
• Land Use Dynamics
• Fragmentation and conversion of agricultural land
• Energy Development
• Potential Irrigation Expansion
• Species at Risk Concerns

15. Biodiversity risks on
agricultural lands, Alberta
Agriculture and Rural
Development
http://www1.agric.gov.ab
.ca/$department/deptdo
cs.nsf/all/agdex10342

16. Species at Risk in Alberta
http://www1.agric.gov.ab
.ca/$department/deptdo
cs.nsf/all/agdex10337

17. Qiu et al, 2013.

18. Qiu et al, 2013.

19. Wetlands
• History of wetlands loss
– Drainage, urban expansion, land conversion, farming efficiencies
• Prairie Canada (1985 – 2001) 5% net wetland area lost
• Alberta (1985-2001) 5% net wetland area lost, 7% in
mixed grasslands and aspen parkland ecosystems
(Watmough and Schmoll, 2007)
• Variety of mechanism proposed to retain or restore
wetlands
– “No Net Loss” and offset programs
– Reverse Auctions
• New Alberta Wetlands Policy

20. Source: Alberta Wetland Policy. 2013, Page 19

21. DUC: Revolving
Land Purchase
Program
Source: http://www.ducks.ca/what-we-do/your-land/prairie-programs/rlp/

22. Grassland
• Species at Risk
• Habitat
• Working Landscape
• Agriculture, Energy,
Municipalities
• Property Rights
• South Saskatchewan
Regional Plan
• South East Alberta
Conservation Offset Pilot

23. Critique (survey responses, analysis)
• Frameworks
• Landscape objectives versus “project based”
• Regulatory clarity
• Public versus private land
• Providing market signals for ecosystem services
• What’s the service? (caribou?)
• Efficiency concerns
•
•
•
•
Cost effectiveness
Transactions costs / learning
Multiple services (multiple policies?)
Crowding out
• Permanence
• Challenging in current climate
• But possibilities exist (DUC RLP)
• Evolution of program
• Requirement for formal program evaluation

24. Conclusions
• Scarcity / Urgency
• Considerable experience and interest
• Governance / regulatory base
• Research support / capacity
• Willingness to learn / innovate
• Key challenges
• Regulatory push (private land, public land)
• Framework
• Recognize need to meet environmental goal, and efficiency goal
• Wealth creation?
• Recognize evolutionary nature of programs
• Learning by doing, program evaluation