ICCB 2010 Symposium

#	Title	Organizer
4	Top priorities of Canadian and American policymakers for conservation science	Erica   Fleishman
7	Economic growth and biodiversity conservation: from theory to the policy arena	Brian  Czech
9	Coupling land-use and conservation planning to create sustainable communities and protect biodiversity	Adina  Merenlender
10	Adding it up: a practical review of payments for environmental services (PES) projects	Nicole Gross-Camp
12	Using conservation science to influence public policy: lessons from North America	Dominick DellaSalla
13	strategic priorities for the conservation of the world's mammalian fauna	Carlo Rondinini
14	Biodiversity monitoring: what is required for success?	Jim Schieck
15	The promises and perils of paying for conservation in a changing world: conceptual frameworks and comparative case study data	James Igoe
19	Searching for sustainable conservation: investing in nature or investing in people?	Rebecca Goldman
23	Conservation planning for off reserve actions: expanding the conservation planning toolbox	Vanessa Adams
24	Incorporating and modelling patch dynamics in conservation planning	Natalie Ban
25	Novel approaches to understanding illegal behaviour in conservation	Aidan  Keane
26	Effective conservation in a changing planet	Michael Somers
28	Conserving large mammal predator-prey systems in a changing world	Nathan Webb
31	Caribou conservation: international perspectives on management and policy	Liv Solveig Vors
32	Developing adaptability: the promise and pitfalls of collaborative conservation	Bruce Lauber
33	Salmonids running amok – climate and human impacts on fish ecology and evolution	Orlay Johnson
35	Large-scale wildlife conservation in western North America: re-connecting multi-jurisdictional landscapes	Kent Redford
36	Tracking progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target and beyond	Val Kapos
41	Artificial lights and nature: challenges for dusk-to-dawn conservation management	Travis Longcore
42	Sustainable use in wildlife conservation	Evelyn  Merrill
43	Supporting conservation through the convention on biological diversity and related laws and agreements	John  Fitzgerald
45	Addressing the extinction crisis for a changing planet: synthesis and new directions for predicting risk across vertebrates	Ana  Davidson
51	Connectivity as a strategy to address climate change	Molly Cross
52	Climate change adaptation in North America: case studies from the marine and coastal environment	Rachel  Gregg
53	Toward effective critical habitat policy: the interacting influences of academic science, environmental advocacy, and bureaucratized practice	Kent Prior
57	Using nature to protect people from climate change impacts	Jennifer Molnar
60	The three C’s - conservation & carbon in the context of global change	John Gamon
61	Protected areas and climate change: mitigation and adaption activities in Canada’s protected areas	Marlow Pellatt
63	Bridging the science - policy gap in implementation of critical habitat under the ESA and SARA	Fiona Schmiegelow
65	Getting lost between land and water: Changing our science and shifting our priorities for aquatic systems under threat	Harmony Patricio
67	Conservation design for human beings: agency, identity, and successful institutions	Olin E. (Gene) Myers, Jr.
68	Boreal forest of opportunity: conservation successes where science, policy, and indigenous rights intersect	Dina Roberts
71	Conserving grizzly bear populations at risk in North America	James Pissot
72	What's the big idea? - a conversation on North American continental conservation	Gary Tabor
73	Conserving Canada’s ecosystems: threats and prospects	Arne Mooers
76	Arthropod conservation in managed landscapes	John Spence
77	Nature conservation in human dominated landscapes	Martin Dieterich
79	Challenges and emerging solutions to development of Alberta’s oil sands	Brett Purdy

Symposia dates and timing to be confirmed.  Listing is accurate as of January 14, 2010. Information is subject to change.

ICCB 2010 Symposium Descriptions

4 SY      Erica Fleishman
Top priorities of Canadian and American policymakers for conservation science
Parallel efforts in Canada and the USA have identified and prioritized information to support the development of effective policies and investments that enhance conservation of biological diversity. The two inclusive processes highlighted data and inferences from the natural and social sciences most needed by policymakers and managers in the face of climate change and other stressors. These efforts built on successful identification of questions of high relevance to policymakers and managers in the United Kingdom and globally. The Canadian and American projects included 3 levels of consultation: (1) initial scoping with agency heads and other high-level policymakers and science advisors, (2) web-based solicitation of issues, and (3) a workshop with participants from representative organizations, the result of which was a set of 40 research questions. We then conducted rigorous surveys of government policymakers and their advisors, nongovernmental policy specialists, conservation researchers, conservation donors, and the public. The surveys prioritized the science questions and compared ranked priorities among and within the different sectors. We examined how rankings differed among sectors and whether all sectors perceived certain questions to be of great relevance to conservation policy. The full set of research questions and the sector-informed priorities are being disseminated to policymakers, funders of research, and the scientific community.

7 SY      Brian Czech
Economic growth and biodiversity conservation: from theory to the policy arena
The theme is the trade-off between economic growth and biodiversity conservation, and the resulting policy implications. This issue continues to garner increased analysis and action due to concurrent, related issues such as climate change, Peak Oil, and financial crises. Most of the major professional natural resources societies in North America are addressing this topic to some degree, and numerous associated working groups have been developed in order to provide sound science and policy implications. A critical perspective toward economic growth is also controversial because of its historic prioritization among polities of the world. Perhaps no other aspect of environmental protection is more directly impacted by economic growth than biodiversity conservation. This symposium will include broad theoretical perspectives, local and regional examples of economic sectors and the integrated nature of economies, and policy implications such as more holistic national income accounting practices and macroeconomic policy reform conducive to biodiversity conservation.

9 SY      Adina Merenlender
Coupling land-use and conservation planning to create sustainable communities and protect biodiversity
Solving the conservation biology implementation crisis requires more than bridging the gap between theory and practice ; the solution lies in the integration of land use and conservation planning. Land use is the primary driver of change on our planet, poses the most serious threats to biodiversity, and is the strongest factor affecting endangered species densities . In many countries land use decisions are made at the local level through state-enabled local planning, regulation, and service provision . Effective land conservation requires reforming these systems to encourage people to live sustainably in urban communities and discourage—sometimes prohibit—exurban sprawl. The challenge is to discern which resources need protection and which protection methods will be most effective, fair, and legally defensible. Yet the realities of land use planning rarely enter land conservation plans – limiting their utility. We must integrate the social sciences and principles of good land use planning with the natural sciences for effective conservation planning and climate change adaptation. This is especially true at the urban-rural fringe, where natural and rural landscape values still predominate and the impacts from exurban development are greatest . Land use planning academics and ecologists will present work on coupling land use and conservation planning, as well as propose an integrated research framework that couples these two disciplines to advance conservation.

10 SY      Nicole Gross-Camp
Adding it up: a practical review of payments for Environmental Services (PES) projects
Widespread recognition of human dependence on the services that are provided by the earth’s ecosystems has led to a rise in new and innovative approaches to achieve conservation goals. One such approach, payments for environmental or ecosystem services (PES), has gained particular attention within the last decade and is increasingly well represented in the literature. The approaches that PES projects use have been highly variable, with some projects examining the institutional dynamics and social change as a result of PES implementation, whereas others have explored the ability of PES schemes to attain conservation goals. Our symposium seeks to explore PES projects from a broad perspective, but within certain boundaries. Our overarching interest is in biodiversity conservation; as such we limit our symposium to PES projects implemented in tropical forested landscapes where an estimated 50+% of the earth’s species are contained. Second, we highlight user-funded (rather than government-funded) PES schemes based on their greater efficiency (Wunder, Engel, & Pagiola, 2008) and the potential promise for future PES projects. Finally we are interested in learning the challenges confronted by PES projects at various stages of development and include both new (<1 year) and established (>3 years) PES project examples.

12 SY      Dominick DellaSalla
Using conservation science to influence public policy: lessons from North America
SCB maintains an active and growing presence in the application of conservation science to policies affecting biological diversity, climate change, endangered species management, and scientific integrity among other SCB global policy priorities. With a membership of 12,000, SCB's policy voice is formidable but has yet to be fully realized. This is especially evident by the growing yet disconnected involvement in natural resource policy among its global policy committee, the North America Section, and SCB’s burgeoning Canadian subsection and North American chapters. Thus, the specific objectives of this symposium are to: (1) mobilize policy interest across the SCB network by engaging this network in the design of a symposium on the application of conservation science in policy; (2) provide conference participants with a suite of successful case studies that individually and collectively demonstrate how conservation science has made an impact on policy outcomes; and (3) encourage participants to submit symposium manuscripts as a special feature in Conservation Biology or other appropriate journal. To accomplish these objectives, the symposium will draw on a diverse set of case studies from the USA and Canada where conservation science has made a clear difference in policy outcomes.

13 SY      Carlo Rondinini
Strategic priorities for the conservation of the world's mammalian fauna
The 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species depicts a grim conservation status for the world’s mammals, with 25% being threatened and 15% so poorly known that no assessment could be made of their status. The proposed symposium will bring together researchers working on mammalian conservation across the world to: explore the past causes of mammalian declines; provide an updated and fine-scale insight of the current situation, based on high-resolution global mammal distribution models; and propose strategies for mammalian conservation that try to preempt and avert current and future plausible threats.

14 SY      Jim Schieck
Biodiversity monitoring: what Is required for success?
Sustaining biodiversity, and reducing the decline of biodiversity by 2010, has been identified as an important component of the Convention on Biological Diversity by most countries. However, it has been difficult to develop effective methods to monitor the status and change in status of biodiversity. A variety of divergent strategies have been advocated within the scientific literature, and researchers and organizations disagree on the most effective path forward. In this symposium, researchers from around the world will present potential solutions for three contentious aspects of biodiversity monitoring. These include: 1. What is the management value of broad cumulative effects monitoring versus narrowly focused single stressor monitoring? 2. Should biodiversity monitoring focus on common species versus rare species? 3. How can monitoring programs achieve long-term funding? Solutions to these questions are critical to implementing effective biodiversity monitoring, and ultimately achieving sustainable management of the planet’s ecosystems. This symposium will provide an opportunity for a wide diversity of researchers and managers to discuss and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of methods to monitor biodiversity.

15 SY      James Igoe
The promises and perils of paying for conservation in a changing world: conceptual frameworks and comparative case study data
In our rapidly changing world ecologies and economies are increasingly intertwined. Conservation finance has become more dependent upon economic growth. But economic growth is implicated in our current ecological crises. Can we escape these difficulties by making economic growth compatible with ecological stewardship through payments for ecosystem services? This is the assumption behind market-based approaches to conservation. Unfortunately the costs and benefits of such approaches remain poorly understood. This panel brings together leading researchers doing frontline research on the promise and perils of such approaches. Their promise is that the future economy will be a prosperous and green one. Their perils revolve around evidence that dependency on market mechanisms is sometimes detrimental to the environment and human livelihoods. This panel will engage with key questions that will help us formulate better understandings of these promises and perils. What kinds of influence do business-conservation partnerships have for the ways in which conservation is conceptualized and implemented? In what contexts do payments for ecosystem services have positive synergies with conservation goals and in what contexts might they undermine them? What kinds of influence do these changes appear to be having on local livelihoods and especially food production systems? Thinking about such questions is essential to the achievement of effective conservation in a changing world.

19 SY      Rebecca Goldman
Searching for sustainable conservation: investing in nature or investing in people?
Human population is growing further stressing natural resources and threatening many ecosystems with collapse. Look at freshwater: 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water and 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation, often in basins and watersheds crucial to biodiversity conservation. This is just one resource. Our proposed symposium will highlight projects that directly, and measurably, link people and nature - focusing on what works, what does not, what are potential benefits and pitfalls, and how this new paradigm may be sweeping the international conservation movement. Our topic stems from three basic premises: 1) There are many projects that invest in people that also help nature (e.g. family planning and health projects) 2) There are many projects that invest in nature that also help people (e.g. ecosystem service projects such as mangrove conservation for shoreline protection). 3) There are far fewer projects that directly invest in nature AND in people (e.g. conservation projects that invest in alternative livelihoods or in sustainable resource extraction). In our symposium we will highlight projects described in (3) above. Our symposium topic fits within the conservation management theme as we will highlight means to broaden conservation goals (what works and what does not) to make them meaningful and helpful to people thereby combating two fully intertwined dilemmas we face with our changing planet: more people – particularly poor people - and more resource degradation.

23 SY      Vanessa Adams
Conservation planning for off reserve actions: expanding the conservation planning toolbox
The establishment of comprehensive networks of protected areas has long been the focus of systematic conservation planning. With increasing demands on natural resources such as clean water, food and fuel it is becoming critical that we manage ecosystems to sustain the supply of these goods and services. However, with increasing population size and reliance on natural resources, strict reserves are not viable in many regions. Therefore, the challenge at hand for conservation planners is to develop a larger suite of conservation tools that address the human and social needs while still achieving conservation outcomes. In recent years innovative programs have been developed such as offsets, payments for ecosystem services and zoning tools, however these are just a start. Planners still need to expand their toolbox to include more sophisticated techniques of engaging stakeholders, eliciting preferences for off reserve actions, estimating costs and benefits and designing incentive programs to increase participation. This symposium presents the first major steps that researchers are taking to fill this gap and move towards not only managing the reserves, but ensuring that off reserve conservation contributes to maintaining the overall health of our ecosystems. Understanding how to use effective off reserve mechanisms will be a key to successful conservation for our changing planet in the face of not only climate change, but increasing populations and demands for natural resources.

24 SY      Natalie Ban
Incorporating and modeling patch dynamics in conservation planning
Patch dynamics are ubiquitous spatio-temporal changes in physical and biological characteristics of areas often driven by disturbances or other discrete events (e.g. fire, pelagic productivity). These dynamics create shifting mosaics of habitat patches that underpin the persistence of many species. As conservation areas become more isolated (e.g., through loss of native land cover), and as climate change causes shifts in weather patterns, spatial and temporal distributions of habitat patches are altered. Most work in systematic conservation planning (SCP) implicitly assumes that patterns of biological diversity are static. Objectives, methods and guidelines are needed to incorporate dynamic patterns of biodiversity into SCP, especially as climate changes. Strategies to sustain biodiversity include protection of dynamic resources as disturbance regimes change and ensuring changes in disturbance dynamics do not jeopardize the ability to achieve targets in conservation areas. Incorporating patch dynamics into conservation planners’ tool set allows these issues to be addressed directly. Our symposium is therefore at the cutting edge of SCP and directly targets conservation for a changing planet. Presenters will outline current work on spatial and temporal dynamics in conservation planning on land and in the sea, including analyses of time-series data, simulations of potential changes in patch dynamics as climate changes, and strategies for incorporating these into planning.

25 SY      Aidan Keane
Novel approaches to understanding illegal behavior in conservation
Rules are ubiquitous in conservation, from community-based approaches to protected areas. As we develop new conservation strategies for our changing global environment, the rules and institutions that underpin them must also adapt. Without exception, success relies on the compliance of key stakeholders, but this is by no means guaranteed and to date we have little understanding of how best to focus enforcement efforts and how to monitor success in securing compliance. This symposium explores the potential of novel methods for understanding illegal behaviors and evaluating strategies to improve compliance with rules. Learning about illegal behavior presents challenging methodological and analytical problems, but there are opportunities to learn from past successes and failures, to draw insights from fields such as fisheries management, and to incorporate approaches from other disciplines. The program combines cross-cutting conceptual research with detailed case studies of real-world applications, from the emerging body of interdisciplinary research which asks how conservation-friendly actions can be encouraged and rule-breaking deterred. Traditionally, these questions have been studied using interviews and patrol records which are cheap and widely available, but prone to bias. However, new techniques, improvements in statistical methods, and better models of human behavior offer exciting new avenues for learning about illegal behavior and its prevention.

26 SY      Michael Somers
Effective conservation in a changing planet
Despite operating as a field in its own right for several decades, the increasing number of threatened species on the IUCN Red List suggests Conservation Biology is failing at its core mission – the effective conservation of biodiversity. This problem is likely to be exacerbated in the face of a changing planet. In this symposium, we ask how we can more effectively conserve biodiversity. We investigate this topic using case studies of threatened species that have improved or declined in status, coupled with reviews of the broader topic. There are countless strategies to conserve biodiversity, ranging from broad-scale conservation planning and decision making analyses to most efficiently use limited conservation resources, to intensive, fine-scale strategies, such as reintroductions. The effectiveness of these is often untested and varies enormously. We ask whether the disparity between strategies and their effectiveness is a result of biases in academic research to increase impact of publications or a breakdown in transmitting ideas and concepts between scientists and managers. Presentations will consist of an introduction to effective conservation strategies, a review of the strategies that were effective, and then a series of case studies. We will end with studies of the impacts of successful conservation initiatives. This symposium will focus on solutions, and as such will benefit those seeking successful conservation actions in the future.

27 SY      Dirk Schmeller
Conservation responsibilities and priorities - methods and application
One particular challenge in reducing the loss of biodiversity by 2010, as agreed on at the Earth Summit in 2002, is to assign conservation tasks to geographic or administrative entities (e.g. countries or regions) on different geographical scales. To identify conservation tasks, it is imperative to determine the importance of a specific area for the global survival of a species. So far, these national or sub-national responsibilities for the conservation of species have been included differently in methods prioritizing conservation. Countries currently use different methodologies, which makes a direct comparison of existing assessments of national responsibilities among countries extremely difficult. To increase comparability, it is imperative to develop criteria for which data are generally available and to standardize the methodology among countries. A standardized method would allow conservation decisions to be based not only on the conservation status of a species, but also on the responsibility of a geographic or administrative entity for the survival of a species. Such a method would allow the creation of hierarchical lists and would be highly relevant for parts of the world with multiple political jurisdictions, state unions, and nations with regional governmental structures. Conservation priorities could then be reasonably set by combining national responsibility assessments with the international conservation status of a species.

28 SY      Nathan Webb
Conserving large mammal predator-prey systems in a changing world
Humans affect large mammal predator-prey systems directly by limiting populations of predators and/or prey and indirectly by altering landscapes and influencing prey composition. The ecological spin-offs that accompany these changes are often profound, occasionally unexpected, and frequently difficult to manage. Large carnivores pose a risk to humans and livestock, have been extirpated from portions of their range as a consequence and may never be permitted to re-occupy some of it, creating an ecological vacuum. It remains unclear whether managing prey populations using human hunting can fill this void. In some places, ecological integrity has been restored through predator reintroduction programs and endangered species legislation, often in the face of intense controversy. Elsewhere, large carnivores are causing declines in populations of endangered or socially important ungulates, resulting in rigorous predator control programs. We have assembled a group of experts to discuss the science and human dimensions underlying the management and conservation of large mammal predator-prey systems. We focus on the challenges of maintaining large predators in the face of inherent risks to human life and property, the difficulty of conserving predators when they have negative impacts on endangered or socially important prey, and the science of managing prey populations in areas where large predators are absent. The session concludes with a panel discussion.

31 SY      Liv Solveig Vors
Caribou conservation: international perspectives on management and policy
Caribou and reindeer populations face a myriad of limiting factors, such as predation, adverse weather conditions, insect harassment and disease (Klein 1991). They represent one of the last remaining large ungulate migrations in the northern hemisphere (Berger 2004), and their annual movements often span many jurisdictional boundaries. Moreover, the majority of caribou and reindeer populations worldwide are in a decline attributed to climate change and industrial development within the species’ range (Vors and Boyce 2009). Given that the global population decline encompasses all subspecies of caribou and reindeer, and the immeasurable value of the species to northern cultures through subsistence hunting and herding (Peterson and Johnson 1995), international dialogue on caribou and reindeer management strategies is needed. Thus, the purpose of this symposium is to provide an overview of region-specific caribou and reindeer limiting factors and policy in order to educate both professionals and students on the conservation and management of a “threatened” species with circumpolar distribution. This symposium will facilitate sharing of management techniques and policy, identification of knowledge gaps, and fostering of communication among managers and researchers in the international community.

32 SY      Bruce Lauber
Developing adaptability: the promise and pitfalls of collaborative conservation
Conservation requires the ability to respond to change. Ongoing shifts in human activities, landscapes, and species abundance and distributions are occurring at a daunting rate and dramatic scale. Many governmental and nongovernmental conservation organizations originated under conditions very different from those that prevail today. To maintain effectiveness, these organizations depend on their capacity to adapt to changing conditions. Collaboration is an important strategy for building the capacity to respond to change. A wide array of collaborative conservation efforts have arisen in recent years involving diverse types of partners. By combining knowledge, resources, and capabilities, these collaborative efforts have the potential to respond more quickly to evolving conservation needs if they purposefully develop adaptability. Speakers in this symposium will discuss the results of theory-based research exploring the requirements for collaborative conservation and how collaboration builds capacity for conservation adaptation in a changing world. This symposium would address several of the 100 questions important to conservation that Sutherland et al. (2009) identified, including (1) how characteristics of organizations and their funding influence the effectiveness of conservation; (2) cost-effectiveness of different approaches for expanding conservation capacity; and (3) effectiveness of different mechanisms used to promote data sharing and collaboration.


33 SY      Orlay Johnson
Salmonids running amok – climate and human impacts on fish ecology and evolution
The theme for the symposium is on changes occurring in the life history, distribution, and genetics of salmonids and other aquatic populations due to human influences such as fishing, aquaculture, management and changes in climate. Our focus will be on the anadromous and non-anadromous populations inhabiting the regions surrounding the North Pacific and Arctic ocean basins as well as species introduced into New Zealand. Relevance to Conference Location: Alberta and British Columbia are both in the heart of the Pacific salmon region and on the cutting edge of climate change impacts for these species. These presentation will be relevant to both the theme of the meeting and the host region. Novelty of the Symposium Each SCB meeting has included sessions on fish migration, life history, and genetics. However, this will be the first time these parameters are put together in a symposium focusing on such a widely distributed migratory family and the impact of climate change and other human-induced changes on its very existence.

35 SY      Kent Redford
Large-scale wildlife conservation in Western North America: re-connecting multi-jurisdictional landscapes for the ecological restoration of bison
Humans have crisscrossed the earth demarcating claims of use, access, and sovereignty. The conservation of wide-ranging species in broader landscape remains one of our main challenges, particularly in the face of expanded anthropogenic threats, resource extraction, and climate change. Protected areas have proven limited in fully conserving wide-ranging species or their ecosystem function. If we are to conserve the ecological function of many species, we need management mechanisms that reflect ecological scale. As western North America continues to experience change, developing conservation strategies in multi-jurisdictional landscapes becomes necessary. Multi-jurisdictional landscapes require addressing multiple ownership patterns and scientific, social, legal, and political challenges. Most work on conservation is silent on the challenges of implementation at larger scales. We propose a symposium to address the challenges of conservation and restoration in large landscapes, using the plains bison (Bison bison) as an example. Bison once ranged from Mexico to central Canada and were a driver of ecosystem function. Today, most bison in North America are heavily managed and the bison stands to lose its ecological function. This symposium proposes to explore recent studies on bison restoration, best practices for designing and implementing multi-jurisdictional management schemes, and unresolved questions regarding restoration in large landscapes, with the aim of producing a paper of case studies.

36 SY      Val Kapos
Tracking progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target and beyond
In response to global declines in biodiversity, the world’s governments have pledged, under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Timely information on where and in what ways the target has or has not been met, as well as the likely direction of future trends, depends on a rigorous, relevant, and comprehensive suite of biodiversity indicators with which to track changes over time, to assess the impacts of policy and management responses, and to identify priorities for action. How far have we come in meeting these needs, and how can science better support policy-making post-2010? The proposed symposium will review progress in developing the global biodiversity indicators agreed by the CBD and will explore the state of the art of the science of indicator development through a number of relevant examples. It will consider the kinds of post-2010 targets and indicators likely to be agreed at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010, and identify what is required to ensure the best scientific underpinning. The proposed symposium is focused on measuring change, and is thus directly relevant to the theme of SCB2010. Moreover, the topic is extremely timely given that 2010 is the year in which progress towards the global biodiversity target will be assessed and new, longer-term targets and indicators will be agreed.

41 SY      Travis Longcore
Artificial lights and nature: challenges for dusk-to-dawn conservation management
A growing body of research supports the conclusion that artificial light at night has diverse and wide-ranging effects on sensitive species and ecosystems. The view of the planet from space at night, showing widespread and pervasive artificial lighting, is evidence of a dramatic planetary change caused by humans in a single century. Conservation managers have for too long forgotten to consider the night, assuming that if a corridor or reserve looks good in the day nothing more is to be done. The purpose of this symposium is to explore the breadth of relevance artificial lighting has for conservation management and present innovative management and education efforts to conserve, protect, and restore the ecology of the night. The symposium also provides a unique opportunity to strengthen collaboration with astronomers, who have a profound interest in curtailing light pollution and can assist biologists with research and outreach on this important topic. The symposium will include papers investigating the science of light impacts on species ranging from larval development to connectivity, management approaches such as the use of lights of different spectra to minimize impacts, policy questions such as the effectiveness of light pollution ordinances, and examples of public outreach efforts that meld conservation of species with preservation of views of the night sky.

42 SY      Evelyn Merrill
Sustainable use in wildlife conservation
Sustainable use is a valuable tool for promoting the conservation of biological diversity, in many instances providing incentives for conservation and restoration because of the social, cultural and economic benefits that people derive from that use. In turn, sustainable use will not be socially accepted without effective politics and conservation measures. Hunting, trapping and angling are forms of sustainable use of wildlife when properly managed. Revenues and taxes from hunting allow communities and governmental or private wildlife management agencies to finance protective measures (e.g. anti-poaching activities, habitat protection and/or restoration), which otherwise will not be funded due to other priorities. At the same time there are ideological attacks against such forms of sustainable wildlife use even when can be shown to generate income, provide less-intensive land use, build the value into protection of species, have a softer “footprint” because they require less infrastructure, produce less waste, and reduce habitat destruction. Of those who do not hunt, fish or trap, there is a lower awareness of the power for conservation inherent in sustainable use. We believe that the participants of the Society for Conservation Biology will benefit from engaging in discussions with sustainable wildlife users to achieve conservation for biodiversity on a changing planet.

43 SY      John Fitzgerald
Supporting conservation through the convention on biological diversity and related laws and agreements
The United Nations has declared 2010 to be "the year of biodiversity" and has made the Convention on Biological Diversity the focal point for the year. Using science-based information to empower the Convention and the laws and agreements that implement it is a most appropriate and significant subject for a conference whose theme is "Conservation for a Changing Planet" because the CBD is the most comprehensive and adaptive of all conservation conventions. The CBD and its processes address virtually all of the elements of a comprehensive conservation and science program and nearly all of the strategic approaches listed in the introduction to the conference on the web site, especially the goals concerning policy and decision-making. We will highlight the laws that implement the CBD and its principles, and the way the CBD and other international agreements can work together to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

45 SY      Ana Davidson
Addressing the extinction crisis for a changing planet: synthesis and new directions for predicting risk across vertebrates
One-quarter of all mammals, one-fifth of birds, one-third of amphibians, and about 5% of reptiles and fishes are threatened with extinction. In the current extinction crisis, there is a great need to understand the ecological mechanisms that lead to extinction and identify those species that are at greatest risk. Yet, in order to prioritize conservation efforts, biologists must gain a better understanding of both the intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting extinction risk, and provide results of practical conservation value. Considerable work has been done to understand the ecological traits and environmental variables that make species at risk, but most research has focused on mammals and much work remains to be done. Here, we will: 1) provide a synthesis of the underlying intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with extinction risk in different vertebrate groups; 2) discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and future directions of analytical approaches, and, perhaps most importantly; 3) identify the future steps needed from this kind of research to directly benefit conservation practice. To do this, we will bring together academic researchers and conservation professionals to identify the next steps needed for conservation. This symposium will highlight new insights into the extinction process and will facilitate much-needed interactions between academic scientists and conservation practitioners.

51 SY      Molly Cross
Connectivity as a strategy to address climate change
As the Earth’s climate changed in the past, many species moved great distances, often expanding to fill newly suitable climatic zones or retreating into isolated climatic refugia. Given the degree to which humans have altered the landscape, it will be much more difficult for species to respond to current and future climate changes in similar ways. Increasing the connectivity of many landscapes will likely be a critical strategy for addressing climate change impacts on biodiversity. Although there is a large degree of consensus on this point, relatively little work has been done to explore how landscapes can be designed or managed to provide connectivity that will allow species to move in response to climate change. This symposium explores some of the most recent thought and research on how to connect landscapes for addressing climate change, including what connectivity needs look like for various species and groups under climate change, and what types of policy and land protection options exist or need to be developed to maintain or increase connectivity on the landscape. Talks will address theoretical, empirical, modeling and policy approaches for ameliorating climate change impacts through increased connectivity, and provide case studies from around the world. Together, the talks will provide much-needed clarity on how to define and identify connectivity for climate change so that conservation practitioners and managers can implement this important strategy.

52 SY      Rachel Gregg
Climate change adaptation in North America: case studies from the marine and coastal environment
Climate change is now widely acknowledged as a global problem and conservation practitioners are recognizing it on the ground. How we deal with the reality of climate change in the practice of conservation is a challenge we are just beginning to face. This symposium will focus explicitly on the meeting’s overarching theme of Conservation for a Changing Planet. It will highlight efforts by conservation practitioners from different regions and scales within the marine and coastal environments of North America to make their work climate-informed. It will showcase the types of activities that are currently underway in the conservation world, highlight successes and possibilities for coordination, and act as a meeting ground for others interested and/or actively engaged in climate change adaptation.

53 SY      Kent Prior
Toward effective critical habitat policy: the interacting influences of academic science, environmental advocacy, and bureaucratized practice
Conservation of imperilled species requires the protection of habitats.  This need is recognized in law across many jurisdictions.
Notwithstanding its essential value, critical habitat provisions in legislation are not working effectively to benefit species at risk - current implementation often means no critical habitat.  This mismatch between what we know and what we do must be resolved if species are to be conserved. This symposium focuses on implementation problems which arise from the often contentious interactions among 3 different communities: (1) academic conservation biologists (2) environmental advocates and (3) government practitioners.  Despite having the common goal of biodiversity conservation, their specialized perspectives and mandates often preclude these communities from welcoming alternative points of view and arriving at multi-disciplinary solutions.  These tensions have contributed to the establishment of vague guidance, non-standardized methods, indefensible results, and court imposed rulings to identify critical habitat. The symposium draws together members of the academic, non-government, and government communities to review the theory and practice of critical habitat identification and protection.  The goals of the symposium are threefold: (1) Expose the audience to the challenging realities of implementing critical habitat legislation (2) Encourage cooperation and authentic consultation among participant communities and (3) Provide a framework for an SCB Policy on Critical Habitat.

57 SY      Jennifer Molnar
Using nature to protect people from climate change impacts
Climate change is happening, and recent projections indicate that changes are likely to be greater and happen faster than we anticipated only a few years ago. Global temperatures have risen 0.74°C over the last century, and are projected to rise up to 1°C in just the next 20 years. The resulting changes are going to be significant, with sea levels potentially rising over a meter in the next century, storms increasing in intensity and frequency, and changes in precipitation patterns bringing drought and flooding. We not only need to be reducing carbon emissions, but also planning for how people and ecosystems are going to adapt to the changes. Our proposed symposium will explore the potential for improving human resilience to climate change through the conservation of natural habitats. Adaptation strategies include conserving and restoring habitats such as mangroves and salt marshes that can directly protect communities from threats like rising seas and storm surges, as well as maintaining the resilience of ecosystems that provide crucial services, such as fisheries or forestry, to people. This symposium fits into the conservation management theme, as it explores how the conservation of ecosystems can help people adapt to climate change. Presentations would include examples of projects that are incorporating human adaptation strategies, as well as technical and policy tools that can help in applying these strategies more broadly.

60 SY      John Gamon
The three C’s - conservation & carbon in the context of global change
Global change, including climate change and habitat loss, present many challenges for conservation, in part through changing habitat and accelerated species extinction. Can conservation objectives be aligned with biological carbon sequestration in a rapidly changing world? This symposium will examine this question from a multi-disciplinary perspective, drawing on conservation biology, ecosystem ecology, remote sensing, earth system science, economics, and policymaking, and will consider both fundamental and applied aspects of this question. We will also consider projects in Alberta designed to attain conservation and carbon sequestration goals. By exploring a unified approach to conservation, carbon exchange, and climate change, the topic directly addresses the theme “Conservation for a Changing Planet.” John A. Gamon, Professor Departments of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences & Biological Sciences University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB Email: jgamon@gmail.com Phone: 780-492-0345

61 SY      Marlow Pellatt
Protected areas and climate change: mitigation and adaption activities in Canada’s protected areas
Parks Canada is developing policy that incorporates ecosystem-based adaptation as a key component its approach to climate change adaptation. Protected areas represent a long-term commitment to the conservation of species, ecological processes and, in many cases, associated cultural values and resources. They are often accorded legal recognition, have agreed-upon management and governance approaches, and are supported by management planning and capacity. It is these qualities that make investments in protected area establishment and management cost-effective in the context of climate change adaptation. Issues being examined include ecosystem and heritage resource protection, carbon sequestration and storage, system planning, visitor experience, and public education. Climate change impacts on biodiversity and the role of protected areas as conservation tools in a changing “greenhouse” world are only beginning to be examined at the extent necessary for successful adaptation. This session will examine the role of policy development, partnerships and leadership, the role of protected areas in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and discuss examples of research and management actions in protected areas. The session will promote dialogue among conservation professionals that can be applied to the development of best practices for protected area managers and scientists.

63 SY      Fiona Schmiegelow
Bridging the science-policy gap in implementation of critical habitat under the ESA and SARA
Conservation of endangered species is a cornerstone of the science of conservation biology. One of the main vehicles for endangered species recovery in the US has been the Endangered Species Act (ESA) which has spawned similar legislation such as the Species-at-Risk Act of Canada (SARA), now entering its seventh-year of existence. Yet, regardless of the conservation successes of the ESA and fledgling SARA, reviews of the ESA almost a decade ago revealed systematic problems with the implementation of the ESA at the critical habitat identification stage. Despite the intention of SARA to avoid these problems, recent challenges in Canada, including woodland caribou, sage-grouse and killer whales, suggest that similar problems of translating science into policy are hampering the implementation of critical habitat provisions under SARA. In this symposium, we will address the key components of conservation science designed to aid critical habitat identification and protection for a wide array of endangered species under both the ESA and SARA. Legal and policy comparisons between the ESA and SARA and across individual species case studies will reveal bottlenecks in implementation of critical habitat provisions at the science-policy interface. Finally, we will develop recommendations for the conservation management of endangered species critical habitat and improvements to the implementation of both SARA and ESA as a crucial approach to conservation biology in a changing world.

65 SY      Harmony Patricio
Getting lost between land and water: Changing our science and shifting our priorities for aquatic systems under threat
A multitude of organisms flourish where land meets water. The coastal realms of the Earth are so productive that nearly 50% of all fishes and marine mammals live there. Human dependence on coastal and freshwater resources is clear, and while demands for water and seafood expand our priorities in managing these systems are changing. Freshwater species are the most threatened, with extinction rates four to six times higher than their terrestrial or marine counterparts. Research has already demonstrated the impacts of anthropogenic transformation of biogeochemical cycles, changing the ability of our planet's aquatic and transitional systems to function. We often practice fractured science and management that separate land from freshwater, freshwater from marine, and marine from land, through clefts amongst disciplines and political jurisdictions. By promoting integrated research and social understanding of the potential benefits and threats that changing aquatic-terrestrial systems present, we can spur effective policy and management. In this symposium we will examine the flux of relationships between land and water. We will explore the establishment of priorities for freshwater biodiversity conservation in the northern and southern hemispheres, interactions between natives and nonnatives from the river to the sea, and the influence of land modification on the health of oceans. Our goal is to help mend the fractures, discussing research, education, and management that promote transboundary science and transdisciplinary collaboration. We address questions such as: What climate change impacts on freshwater systems are we observing now, what changes may come, and what are the key factors to study to test predicted changes? What are the critical freshwater habitats, systems and species that require short-term actions to persist, and where do we focus? Are there currently underutilized resources that can be applied to conservation of freshwater systems? How can we integrate needs for freshwater across borders and between humans and ecosystems?

67 SY      Olin E. (Gene) Myers, Jr.
Conservation design for human beings: agency, identity, and successful institutions
Psychology and political science offer critical concepts and findings for the design of adaptive strategies for all sorts of change. These and other social sciences can characterize the best ways to enable and encourage intelligent human action (agency), and how to embed these approaches in institutions. Working with people in a changing world requires avoiding misconceptions about the forces that generate the status quo. Understanding the dynamics of decisions, identity, cognition, and unconscious motivations is critical to successful institutional design. Coping with change from household to global scales requires increasing budgets of flexibility (resilience) in such systems. This session will address elements implicit in Sutherland et.al. (2009) questions (such as 5, 45, 67, 68, 88 and 87) which hinge on how human agency and social institutions reciprocally shape each other. This session will bring together social scientists to bridge their disciplines more effectively for conservation. Political theory depends on assumptions about humans that psychology regularly tests and refines. Mind and emotion are sensitive to context, and political science describes institutions as highly pervasive, power-imbued, and adaptive contexts. Remarkably, while such intersections are of obvious importance for conservation, disciplinary isolation makes such opportunities rare but of high potential value. Here conservation may also engender advances at the intersections of these fields.

68 SY      Dina Roberts
Boreal forest of opportunity: conservation successes where science, policy, and indigenous rights intersect
Canada’s Boreal region is a place of high ecological, cultural and economic importance. Efforts to protect the Boreal are on-going, but often fly under the radar of the global conservation community. This symposium presents ongoing scientific and policy efforts around implementation of the Boreal Conservation Framework. The framework lays out a vision of protecting at least 50% of Canada’s Boreal from industrial development while implementing sustainable development on the remaining landscape. Despite the fact that Canada’s Boreal houses globally significant amounts of terrestrial carbon and unique biodiversity elements, the region has been overlooked in global conservation assessments as a place of high importance. Increasing threats to the region, including energy development and climate change, are making protection of this critical biome more urgent than ever. Recent conservation successes and policy developments have shifted the pendulum towards reaching the goal of at least 50% protection. Continued mapping and articulation of the range of conservation values will provide a broad-scale vision for moving policy towards the end goal. This symposium describes the global conservation significance of Canada’s boreal region, the current status of protection and how science is interfacing with First Nation values and Federal, Provincial and local policy to implement big conservation actions in a changing world.

71 SY      James Pissot
Conserving grizzly bear populations at risk in North America
East of Edmonton is a line. Grizzly bears persist today west of that line—in small and large numbers, in relatively isolated or well-connected populations, and under a variety of management regimes. The great bear is largely extirpated east and south of Edmonton. We struggle to conserve these remnant numbers. We propose a symposium entitled, Conserving Grizzly Bear Populations at Risk in North America. We will 1) explore the latest methods to assess grizzly numbers and fragmentation among populations; 2) assess habitat protection efforts; 3) survey institutional aids and barriers to conservation; 4) evaluate methods to reduce grizzly-human conflicts; and, 5) look into the grizzly’s future. Leading-edge strategies and methods for grizzly bear research and management are not shared by all jurisdictions managing the great bear. By convening a discussion among researchers and managers from various government agencies, we will encourage the sharing of methodologies to better protect and restore the biodiversity of this region. Lands the grizzly calls home are changing rapidly. We hope to generate a broader public discussion about the value of the great bear, and a better understanding of the science behind management decisions. We will encourage conference participants and residents of grizzly country to join us in appreciation and conservation. If we succeed, the future of the great bear will be more secure. If we fail, that line east of Edmonton will move farther east.

72 SY      Gary Tabor
What's the big idea? - a conversation on North American continental conservation
Large Landscape Conservation: The ecological integrity of terrestrial landscapes is threatened by an onslaught of synergistic, cumulative impacts that manifest themselves in a process of fragmentation. North America is undergoing sweeping land transformation as urban sprawl melds into rural and energy sprawl and the reach of growing mega-cities extends to the furthest regions of the continent and beyond. We are witnessing the build-out of North America from coast to coast. Above the tidal wave of human advance, in areas of both higher altitude and higher latitude, exists most of the continent’s intact nature; much of it in protected areas that are constructs of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Ecological processes and ecosystem services, such as hydrological regimes, pollination, fire, and wildlife movements are poorly captured within the protected area construct. One such conceptual flaw is the notion that land that happens to lie outside of a protected area has reduced conservation value. In fact, these lands provide the broader ecological context that sustains the conservation values of protected areas. Core areas plus connectivity and the matrix all have value. Add to this, the spectre of climate change which is exacerbating existing stressors and catalyzing interest in large landscape conservation. Thus, large landscape conservation is viewed as an adaptation approach that at minimum hedges our conservation bets and at the most enhances necessary ecological resilience.

73 SY      Arne Mooers
Conserving Canada’s ecosystems: threats and prospects
Canada bears a large global responsibility for Northern and temperate ecosystems. In recognition of the UN 2010 Biodiversity Target and the International Year of Biodiversity, we propose a symposium that presents the first-ever comprehensive overview of the status of Canada's major ecozones. The specific aims would be to review the status and trends of Canada's Natural Heritage, and to start to build a forward-looking framework for the long term assessment and management of Canada's biodiversity. This framework fits in well with the SCB meeting theme (Conservation for a Changing Planet). The timing is particularly auspicious because multiple levels of government are just completing the first Ecosystems Status and Trends Report (ESTR) for Canada (anticipated to be released in late 2010). We will use this landmark set of draft technical reports (focused on the status, trends and stressors of each of 25 broadly-defined terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecological units) as the springboard for our symposium.

76 SY      John Spence
Arthropod conservation in managed landscapes
Arthropods are the ultimate fine-grained habitat specialists and the most diverse group of multicellular organisms on the planet Earth. Furthermore, they are functionally important to ecosystem processes in virtually all terrestrial processes. There is abundant evidence that anthropogenic impacts on landscapes, especially those subject to active management leads to homogenization and simplification of these hyperdiverse organisms. Because arthropods are so diverse and so many species are difficult to find and identify, conservation of their assemblages undertaking fraught with challenges distinct from those facing mainstream conservation biology dealing with vertebrates and plants. Contributors to this symposium will explore the evidence for such effects in a variety of ecosystems from around the world, review process oriented explanations for the changes that we see and the predicted outcomes of such changes, and suggest how management regimes can be altered to minimize such biodiversity loss.

77 SY      Martin Dieterich
Nature conservation in human dominated landscapes
The European experience is unique in that it combines long term efforts in nature conservation with high population density, industrialization and intensification in the agriculture sector. This has resulted in tremendous pressures on the environment and associated biodiversity. While some parts f Europe have experienced substantial biodiversity loss, the continent is still characterized by numerous biodiversity hot-spots and high nature value habitat types. Europe can provide experiences and examples for nature conservation on a planet changing towards increased pressures on the environment. The EU nature conservation Directives (Habitats Directive and Birds Directive) and the resulting Natura 2000 network of protected sites in many respects can be considered the most progressive approach to nature conservation on a global scale. While implementation of Natura 2000 management is rather diverse throughout the EU, it is always tightly linked to rural development programs and therefore land use practices (stakeholder involvement). Primarily based on the European experience the symposium will present approaches to nature conservation in human dominated landscapes.

79 SY       Brett Purdy
Challenges and emerging solutions to development of Alberta’s oil sands
Oil sand deposits underlay approximately 140,000 km2 of Alberta’s boreal forest and comprise one of the largest remaining oil reserves in the world. Relatively recent technological advances have made access to this resource economically feasible, resulting in significant growth in oil sands production. The pace and extent of this development has presented economic, social, policy and environmental challenges.

Bitumen production from the majority of the oil sands requires enhanced/thermal in-situ extraction techniques which result in: increased surface disturbance; increased greenhouse gas emissions; and challenges associated with water use. Surface mines, used to access shallow bitumen deposits in <5% of the oil sands region, have their own unique challenges:  mine tailings; process-affected water management; landform and landscape integration; surface water and ground-water management; and reclamation to self-sustaining ecosystems.

Legislation and regulatory approvals require companies to reclaim disturbed land, typically to boreal forest ecosystems, following both mining and in-situ oil sands development. Environmental effects associated with oil sands development are both intensive and extensive in nature, and may affect air, land and water resources. Presentations in this symposium will explore both the challenges and emerging solutions to the development of Alberta’s oil sands resources. Topics will include: cumulative effects and biodiversity; ground-water and surface-water use and management; integrated land management; emerging tailings technologies; and reclamation.

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