NWT THRESHOLDS: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE: Key Concepts

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NWT THRESHOLDS FROM THEORY TO PRACTICEKey
Concepts

• Hosted by
• Environment Canada and Indian and Northern
  Affairs Canada
• YellowknifeMarch 13, 2006
• Salmo Consulting Inc. Terry Antoniuk

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Cumulative Socio-cultural Effects
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Cumulative Ecological Effects
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I. WHY THRESHOLDS?

• Northern governments, First Nations, and
  communities are looking for tools to help
• understand and plan for the future
• balance benefits and risks
• make decisions
• What is acceptable?

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Landscape Change
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1 Change
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5 Change
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10 Change
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15 Change
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30 Change
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40 Change
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60 Change
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70 Change
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CUMULATIVE EFFECT MANAGEMENT

• Must deal with
• High rates of change
• Project-specific to regional
• Small to large
• Short- to long-term
• Many resources
• Multiple interests

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Why Thresholds?

• Rules of the road

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II. CE FRAMEWORKS

• Rules of the road
• Common vision to link individual actions with
  desired outcome
• Set speed limits (indicators and thresholds)
• Management framework
• Yield signs vs. traffic lights
• School zones vs. highways
• Basis for regulation and monitoring

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CE Framework

• Vision and Objectives
• Valued Components
• Indicators
• Thresholds, Targets, or Limits of Acceptable
  Change
• Implementation, Impact Management, and
  Enforcement Tools
• Research, Monitoring, and Reporting

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1. Vision and Objectives

• Statements of desired environmental and social
  conditions
• can be translated into action by decision makers,
  service providers, and developers
• Usually inconsistent or conflicting objectives
• Many general NWT examples very few examples
  linked to numerical thresholds or limits

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Vision and Objectives

• Example
• balance safety and travel time for different
  road types (highways, communities, ice roads)
• maintain healthy caribou and caribou numbers

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2. Valued Components

• an aspect of the environment important for
  social, economic, cultural, community,
  ecological, legal, or political reasons
• Focus resources on key issues
• Many NWT examples
• not always consistent

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3. Indicators

• a feature of the social or environmental setting
  that is used to describe, measure, manage, and
  report on factors of value (such as Valued
  Components)
• Common language
• Many NWT examples NWT CIMP indicators will
  likely be foundation
• However, dont all apply to CE Framework

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Indicators

• Always technical debate
• Outcomes or Inputs
• post-calving (July) caribou population
  estimate or
• area with surface land use
• Specific or Generalized
• Marten harvest or
• Traditional harvest participation rate
• Numerical or Subjective
• Crime rate or
• Quality of life

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Indicators

• Selection not just technical, should also
  consider
• local and traditional knowledge
• implementation
• applicability to project-specific and cumulative
  regional effects
• understandable and cost-effective

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4. Management Thresholds

• Technically or socially-based standards that
  identify the point at which an indicator changes
  to an unacceptable condition
• Speed limits
• Basis for decision-making and impact management

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Ideal Threshold
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Actual Dose-Response
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Developing Thresholds

• What can we learn from speed limits?
• there is no single right answer in setting speed
  limits
• every speed limit represents a trade-off
• attempts to achieve an appropriate balance
• uses different road classes
• speed considered safe and reasonable by 85 of
  drivers for that road class

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Developing Thresholds

• Technical
• defensible and based on best available
  information
• Vehicle speed vs. accidents
• Political
• social, economic, and ecological costs and
  benefits understood and acknowledged
• Balance between safety, driver time, costs
• Majority must accept
• Administrative
• practical and efficient implementation by
  individuals and regulators
• Speedometers and enforcement rules

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III. USEFUL APPROACHES

• Dose-response Relationships
• Limits of Acceptable Change
• Tiered Thresholds
• Address technical, political, and implementation
  challenges

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Dose-Response

• Generalized relationships
• Help visualize the future
• Help understand trade-offs between social,
  economic, and environmental resources
• Can use information from other more developed
  regions

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Animal Community
IMI Log10(WolfFisherMartenLynx Moose
Weasel) Log10(DeerCoyoteDomestic)
More Natives
More Non-Natives
Low
High
Road Density
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Limits of Acceptable Change

• Socially derived points that reflect the desired
  balance between human activities and
  socio-cultural or ecological conditions
• Includes traditional and local knowledge
• Recognize that exact thresholds dont exist and
  defines amount of change that will be allowed
• Defined in collaborative (group) process such as
  land use planning
• Generally uses different zones to reflect
  different values and provide balance
• Recommended for NWT through CEAM

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Limits of Acceptable Change
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Tiered Thresholds

• Recognize uncertainty
• Reflect increasing degrees of concern
• Incorporate social, economic, and environmental
  values
• Provide a clear and integrated framework for
  assessment and management
• Operating rules clear for all parties
• Provide flexibility
• Different land management goals
• Full spectrum of development proposals

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Tiered Thresholds
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Tiered Land Use Thresholds
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Tiered Population Thresholds
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IV. LESSONS LEARNED

• Thresholds
• Must reflect local and traditional knowledge,
  social values, and public policy as well as
  science
• Best used to manage, not stop development
• Should be part of cumulative effects assessment
  and management framework
• Land use planning processes most effective

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LESSONS LEARNED

• Threshold Development
• technically defensible
• Local and Traditional Knowledge
• Best available science
• dont rely on science to provide
  the answer

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LESSONS LEARNED

• Threshold Development
• politically acceptable
• Socially acceptable and appropriate
• Political and community support
• dose-response curves and integrated models being
  developed to help visualize future trade-offs
• social valuation/preference methods available to
  help
• candidate thresholds should be tested and refined
  (pilot project)

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LESSONS LEARNED

• Threshold Development
• administratively efficient
• Address implementation realities
• Clear decision rules
• Monitoring, enforcement, and reporting
• Integrated, updated, public database essential

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LESSONS LEARNED

• Limit of Acceptable Change and Tiered Threshold
  systems promising
• Creates opportunity for fiscal and economic
  incentives
• Deal with many technical, political, and
  implementation issues

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