Evaluating ecological representation within differing planning objectives for the central coast of British Columbia
2003
Wells, R.W. | Bunnell, F.L. | Haag, D. | Sutherland, G.
Maintaining representation of a full range of ecosystem types is a widely accepted strategy to conserve biodiversity in protected areas. We evaluated representation in the central coast region of British Columbia, a forested landbase containing a complex mix of management options, administrative and ownership types, and disparate ecological and economic objectives. We found that most ecosystem types were well represented outside areas subject to management activities, but a minority were poorly represented. When we examined areas under consideration for protection or special management, we found that they failed to represent many of the most poorly represented ecosystem types and incorporated limited amounts of the remainder. Because these poorly represented types were relatively limited in area, it should be possible to adjust proposed reserve areas to improve representation of these types with limited impact on other values. Failing to do so will result in increased opportunity costs to improve representation in the future. Despite the limitations of ecological classification systems to represent biodiversity, they are an improvement over strictly ad hoc approaches because they employ a systematic, repeatable approach in selecting reserve areas.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by National Agricultural Library