B.C. has five years left to meet its 30x30 conservation target. Can it be done?

The Kaska Dena people, who for thousands of years have lived on a vast swath of intact wilderness in northern B.C. on the Yukon border, have a saying in their language: Dene K’éh Kusān.

It means always will be there.

But as more land is swallowed up by industry — logging, mining, gas exploration — concerns are mounting about whether this land will always be there for future generations. They want to ensure it remains undeveloped to preserve their way of life, and doesn’t succumb to biodiversity loss and climate change like other areas of B.C.

So the Kaska have come up with a plan for the province to protect an area, called the Dene K’éh Kusān — 40,000 square kilometres, an area larger than Vancouver Island, of land and water. They say this can be done by avoiding or minimizing overlap with existing mining and oil-and-gas extraction sites.

If designated an Indigenous protected and conserved area, old-growth boreal forests would remain undeveloped, under the management of Indigenous land stewards, while lakes, rivers and wetlands would be off-limits to industry. It would mean protection for at-risk species such as caribou and moose.

“It’s for the children coming after after us,” says Testloa Smith, a Kaska land steward, in a documentary about the protected status. “And for them you take good care of it.”

It would also boost B.C.’s pledge to protect 30 per cent of land and 30 per cent of water by 2030, say conservation experts. B.C. set the target in 2022, following Ottawa’s commitment at the COP15 conference in Montreal to reversing the decline in biodiversity to better fight climate change and maintain food systems.

More than 190 countries have committed to the biodiversity framework set out at COP15.

With only five years to go, and just about 16 per cent of land protected in B.C. so far, the province must double its efforts if it intends to reach those ambitious targets, according to the B.C. Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, which is monitoring the province’s progress on the 30×30 pledge.

The B.C. government claims the number is higher — at 19.7 per cent protected lands. However, the society says the government is including areas that don’t meet the criteria for protection.

“There have been some achievements, but in terms of progress on the ground that has been slow,” said Tori Ball, conservation director for the society’s lands and freshwater program.

Ball said 15.9 per cent is protected in legislated and permanent conservation areas, and that B.C. and the federal government claim an additional 4.1 per cent in other conservation measures.

Conservation experts have analyzed these measures and found that not all of them meet the criteria, she said. These include that they must be in place long-term or permanent, protected from all industry threats year-round, actively managed and have clear boundaries.?For example, some of B.C.’s old-growth management areas ihave had their boundaries redrawn so that they can be logged, she said.

B.C.’s new minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said in a statement that she’s aware that some areas reported as conservation measures aren’t meeting their originally intended objectives.

Randene Neill said the province is committed to undertaking a review of them “to ensure areas are reported accurately and transparently.”

Still, Ball said B.C. is a leader among Canadian provinces when it comes to conservation efforts. The federal numbers say the same. B.C.’s conserved areas are higher than the national average of 13.7 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, is only at seven per cent.

Ball said Indigenous-led conservation efforts will be key to reaching targets.

Last year, the federal government, the province and First Nations announced a tripartite framework agreement on nature conservation. This deal includes $500 million in funding from the federal government, which is matched by the province.

Neill says agreements like this will help them stay on course but acknowledges there’s more talks needed between First Nations, communities, industry and stakeholders to figure out how the protected areas will be managed.

“By protecting 30 per cent of our land base by 2030, we will not only preserve our province’s natural beauty, but also create opportunities for sustainable economic development,” she said in an email.

Opposition critic Donegal Wilson, Conservative MLA for Boundary-Similkameen, calls B.C.’s 30×30 pledge “unrealistic and deeply concerning due to its lack of transparency, practicality and its negative impact on British Columbians.”

“The government claims that nearly 20 per cent of land is currently protected, yet conservation groups estimate this number is closer to 16 per cent. This significant discrepancy highlights a troubling lack of accurate tracking and transparency, calling into question the feasibility of reaching future targets,” said Wilson.

Wilson is concerned that setting aside land without a clear plan for how it will be managed runs the risk of creating “paper parks,” areas that fail to meet environmental goals because of a lack of management and enforcement.

Conservation experts, however, applaud B.C.’s efforts to protect vast areas of forest. Although some say to reach 30 per cent B.C. needs to look beyond the wilderness and add more urban green space.

Plant more gardens and forests in cities, says Tara Moreau, associate director of sustainability and community programs at the UBC Botanical Garden.

“For cities, connectivity is going to be ecological. Connectivity about not only sort of thinking about how our parks are connected but how do we connect private to public lands so species can travel?” she said.

Moreau said governments should also be doing more to prepare for the loss of plant species due to climate-change-driven drought and floods, such as funding seed or gene banks to preserve genetic diversity.

Urban habitats under threat must also be protected, such as the Garry oak ecosystem on Vancouver Island, she said.

“As the climate impacts are being seen, and they’re happening at a faster rate than many people thought, we need to be protecting a number of species. So you don’t really just want to back up one Garry oak tree. We want to be able to back up the genetic diversity of many types of Garry oaks that are growing across our region,” she said.

University of B.C. forestry expert Matthew Mitchell adds protecting the Okanagan’s grasslands to the list. In a study earlier this month, Mitchell found that by protecting watersheds and other habitats like grasslands, cities can prevent major flooding from more intense rainstorms, which are expected as the planet warms.

Peter Soroye, the key biodiversity areas assessment and outreach coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, said there are now 3,333 officially recognized protection of key biodiversity areas in Canada and 178 candidate sites.

The designation doesn’t give the site legal status as a protected area but can provide resources for government to identify top areas of concern. He noted B.C. is one of the few provinces using the key biodiversity areas for conservation decisions.

“I think B.C. has a much better chance than a lot of other provinces to protect 30 per cent of lands and waters by 2030 and that’s because of collaboration with First Nations,” said Soroye.

As for the Kaska’s protected area proposal, the ministry is aware of it and says it’s “exploring this and other partnership and planning interests as part of our consideration for future conservation and planning priorities.”? ?

ticrawford@postmedia.com