Conservation Offsets: Support for Design & Implementation

1. Conservation Offsets: Support for Design & Implementation Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance Calgary, AB, September 23, 2013 It’s Our Natureto Know Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

2. Early days Few people Lots of land & water Few limits to growth

3. Nowadays More people Little unallocated land & water More land uses

4. Coincidence? CaribouPopulations Land UseFootprint

5. Response Alberta Land Stewardship Act Conservation off-set programs Stewardship Units The Exchange

6. What are Conservation Offsets? Conservation actions to counterbalance the effects of an activity effects ofan activity conservationactions

7. Offsets: Key Challenges Equivalence of project impacts with offset gains Location of the offset relative to the impact site Additionality (a new contribution to conservation) & acceptable types of offsets Timing of project impacts versus offset benefits Offset duration & compliance Currency & mitigation replacement ratios McKenney, B. and J.M. Kiesecker. 2010. Policy Development for Biodiversity Offsets: A Review of Offset Frameworks. Environmental Management 45:165-176.

8. May 2013 Workshop

9. Contributions to date Ecosystem service & biodiversity maps 2013 Jurisdictional review 2012 Grassland assessment for ALSA conservation tools 2011 Economic evaluation of conservation offsets Institute for Agriculture, Forestry & Environment report 2010 Policy support for market-based instruments 2009 2008 Province-wide environmental monitoring system 2007

10. Biodiversity Offsets(A Type of Conservation Offset)

11. Research Objectives Explore the potential to use publicly available data & models to design & implement biodiversity offsets • ABMI field data  biodiversity intactness models • ABMI land cover maps • Land use footprint • Vegetation cover Compare different offset designs • Ecological & economic outcomes • Alternative offset program goals • Like for like vs not • Regional conservation priorities

12. Study Area

13. Lynx 1 Expected values for lynx under intact conditions Intactness |O - E| Observed values for lynx in a region Relative Abundance 0.1 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 2 Area Covered by Human Footprint Offset Currency: Intactness Index

14. Conservation Priorities Caribou Ranges Dry Mixedwood Natural Subregion

15. Offset Requirements:Oil Sands 2020 Forecast Surface Mine CPF CPF In situ Project Mine Tailings Pond

16. Offset Requirements:Oil Sands 2020 Forecast Design Option A: Equivalent Vegetation Design Option B: Total IAA

17. Six Offset Scenarios Two Design Options Equivalent Vegetation Total IAA Three Biodiversity Targets • No spatial constraints • Caribou Range • Dry Mixedwood + Caribou

18. Protection-based Offsets Protection Credits created from purchase of tenure rights • Avoid future biodiversity loss • In-situ = 23.8% * area • Forestry = 6.7% * area Cost based on compensation for existing tenure rights • NPV of profits of petroleum & forestry (Hauer et al. 2010)

19. Restoration-based Offsets Restoration Credits created by removing legacy footprint Cost estimated from existing projects (T. Vinge, pers. comm.) • Seismic lines: $4146/km • ATV trails: $4146/km • Unimproved roads: $8292/km • Winter roads: $9438/km www.pacificwatershed.com

20. Key Results This study: “Like-for-like” is always the more expensive offset design Removing “like-for-like” constraint would decrease the cost of offsets by 10-fold to 100-fold • Some equivalent vegetation is very expensive to offset Requiring offsets to support regional conservation priorities would increase the cost of offsets • Caribou ranges • Ecosystem representation in protected areas Requiring “like-for-like” would miss opportunities to support regional conservation priorities

21. Total Cost of All Offsets

22. Sample Map Output Equivalent Vegetation Total IAA 1. General Biodiversity 2. Caribou Range 3. Dry Mixedwood + Caribou

23. Future Directions Account for time lags & uncertainty in restoration success Consider “currencies” beyond biodiversity • Caribou habitat quality Consider additional costs • Management costs • Transaction costs

24. Opportunity ABMI Ecosystem Services & Biodiversity Project Province-wide maps of ecosystem services & biodiversity • Open source models, publicly available inputs • Beta release March 2014 Demonstrate application to market-based instruments • ALSA Stewardship Units • Conservation offset design • Implementation?

25. Conservation offset questions Conservation Offset System How much “science” is needed? What could ABMI contribute? How best to engage?

26. Thank You Find us online at www.abmi.ca Images abmi.ca arkive.org wikipedia.org

27. ABMI Operating since 2007 • Ramping up to 5-yr rotation Not-for-profit corporation • Board includes gov’t & non-gov’t Province-wide database of biodiversity, land cover & development footprint • Range of environmental management applications

28. ABMI Applications Demonstrate relevance to environmental management Information products from raw data Identify & fill gaps Dedicated business unit (2011) Projects • Rare species monitoring designs • Climate change adaptation • Ecological recovery after reclamation • Ecosystem services & biodiversity ABMI data More data + buncha science Useful information