Human | Wildlife, Stitching The Fabric : Connectivity Strategies For Identified Gaps in Toronto's Ravines

This Master’s Research Project (MRP) examines landscape connectivity strategies for the ravine system in the City of Toronto, CA. A workshop with natural environment specialists from the City of Toronto was organized to gather practitioner-based information as to which gaps should be prioritized in the ravine system. This GAP Analysis was complemented with a Geographic Information System (GIS) - based buffer analysis looking at connectable green spaces in close proximity to Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs). Based on both the workshop and GIS analysis, 16 gaps were investigated through which 4 typologies were created. Interviews were then conducted with professionals from comparator cities: Edmonton (CA), Vancouver (CA), Minneapolis (US), Copenhagen (DK), and Stockholm (SW) to compare into how waterfront cities use policies, partnerships and design interventions to connect waterfront public lands. Based on interviews and additional policy scans, connectivity strategies were created for all 4 typologies as a means to improve landscape connectivity in the City of Toronto.

Human | Wildlife, Stitching The Fabric : Connectivity Strategies For Identified Gaps in Toronto's Ravines

This Master’s Research Project (MRP) examines landscape connectivity strategies for the ravine system in the City of Toronto, CA. A workshop with natural environment specialists from the City of Toronto was organized to gather practitioner-based information as to which gaps should be prioritized in the ravine system. This GAP Analysis was complemented with a Geographic Information System (GIS) - based buffer analysis looking at connectable green spaces in close proximity to Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs). Based on both the workshop and GIS analysis, 16 gaps were investigated through which 4 typologies were created. Interviews were then conducted with professionals from comparator cities: Edmonton (CA), Vancouver (CA), Minneapolis (US), Copenhagen (DK), and Stockholm (SW) to compare into how waterfront cities use policies, partnerships and design interventions to connect waterfront public lands. Based on interviews and additional policy scans, connectivity strategies were created for all 4 typologies as a means to improve landscape connectivity in the City of Toronto.

Institutional Arrangements for Individual Environmentally Significant Areas: The Case of Aishihik, Yukon

A method is described of applying institutional arrangements to an individual environmentally significant area (ESA). It is assumed that an ESA has been recognized by park, wildlife, or other groups, on the basis of abiotic, biotic, and/or cultural, characteristics, as well as judgements about significance and constraints. National park, wildlife reserve, or other, institutional arrangements, may also have been suggested for the ESA. The goal is to decide whether these or other arrangements are appropriate— through analysis of relevant: (1) legislation; (2) agencies; and (3) reserve designation or land management types.

Institutional Arrangements for a System of Environmentally Significant Areas: The Case of the East Beaufort Sea Area, Canada

A method is described of matching environmentally significant areas (ESAs) with the most appropriate form of management for each, selected from all the available forms. This involves comparing the purpose, reasons for significance, existing uses, and tenure, of each ESA, with the characteristics of agencies, protected area categories, legislation, and non-statutory arrangements for management, as well as examining agency coordination mechanisms or other means of implementation. The method was formulated for ESAs in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada, but is considered to have wide applicability. It is illustrated with a test application to seven proposed ESAs in what is termed the eastern Beaufort Sea region.

Towards Comprehensive Conservation of Environmentally Significant Areas in the Northwest Territories of Canada

A wide legislative base is available to conserve Environmentally Significant Areas in the vast Northwest Territories of Canada. However, existing conservation reserves have been designated in an ‘incremental’ fashion, without reference to a guiding plan. Intensive industrialization through hydrocarbon development and increased harvesting of renewable resources are threats to the integrity of many ESAs.An anticipatory and comprehensive policy to conserve Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs) in advance of industrialization is required, but developing such a policy will be difficult, owing to the complex political and jurisdictional ‘environments’ in northern Canada. Despite these problems, the recently announced Northern Landuse Planning Policy could be a vehicle for the implementation of a comprehensive conservation policy for ESAs, if only the institutional structures and processes that will accompany this policy are adequately designed.