Prioritizing conservation actions for Pacific salmon in Canada

Abstract

24 1. Current investment in conservation is insufficient to adequately protect and recover all 25 ecosystems and species. The challenge of allocating limited funds is acute for Pacific 26 salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in Canada, which lack a strategic approach to ensure that 27 resources are spent on actions that would cost-effectively recover diminished 28 populations. 29 2. We applied the Priority Threat Management framework to prioritize strategies that are 30 most likely to maximize the number of thriving Pacific salmon populations on the Central 31 Coast of British Columbia, Canada. These included 79 genetically, ecologically and 32 spatially distinct population groups called Conservation Units (CUs) for five salmon 33 species. This region has high salmon biodiversity and spans the territories of four First 34 Nations: the Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Kitasoo/Xai'xais and Wuikinuxv. 35 3. Using structured expert elicitation of Indigenous and other experts, we quantified the 36 estimated benefits, costs and feasibility of implementing 10 strategies. Under a business-37 as-usual scenario (i.e., no additional investments in salmon conservation or management), 38 experts predicted that only one in four CUs would have >50% chance of achieving a 39 thriving status within 20 years. Limiting future industrial development, which was 40 predicted to safeguard CUs from future declines, was identified as the most cost-effective 41 3 strategy. Investment in three strategies: 1) removal of artificial barriers to fish migration, 42 2) watershed protection, and 3) stream restoration -at 11.3M CAD per year -was 43 predicted to result in nearly half (34 of 79) of the CUs having a >60% chance of meeting 44 the conservation objective. 45 4. If all conservation strategies were implemented, experts estimated a >50% probability of 46 achieving a thriving status for 78 of 79 CUs, at an annual cost of 17.3M CAD. However, 47 5. Policy implications: We illustrate how Priority Threat Management can incorporate the 50 perspectives and expertise of Indigenous peoples and other experts to evaluate and 51 prioritize conservation strategies based on their cost, benefit and feasibility. Timely 52 investment in the strategies outlined in this assessment could help safeguard and recover 53 Pacific salmon in this region of Canada. 54

Informing decision‐making with Indigenous and local knowledge and science

“…This Special Feature highlights a diverse range of approaches to inform decision‐making with Indigenous and local knowledge and science and reflects that approaches must be tailored and developed to the local context where they are applied. Practice‐focused and decision‐making‐oriented approaches addressed in this feature include informing strategic decision‐making for conservation (priority threat management in Pacific salmon, Walsh et al., 2020, this feature), ecosystem‐based adaptation (reindeer husbandry and land use decisions, Hausner et al., 2020, this feature), understanding the role of Indigenous and local practice in conservation (cattle foraging preferences and conservation herding practice, Molnàr et al, 2020, this feature), understanding the social conditions that promote adaptation to change (Indigenous communities and sea otter recovery, Burt et al., 2020, this feature), and adaptation of Indigenous knowledge and practice to globalization (Congretel & Pinton, 2020, this feature) and informing conservation translocations (Rayne et al., 2020, this feature). More knowledge production‐focused approaches include understanding of complex interactions between seasonal weather and wildlife condition (Gagnon et al., 2020, this feature) and contributions of Indigenous and local knowledge to global contexts, including recently through the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).…”

Prioritizing conservation actions in urbanizing landscapes

“…Selecting an entirely different metric, such as number of people with access to healthy stream habitat (if the conservation goal was related to human health and well-being) would likely yield a completely different prioritization. This demonstrates the value of quantitative prioritization tools that incorporate biological attributes and uncertainty, even with limited biological data, because trade-offs of different targets become apparent 54,55 .…”

“…Urban stream syndrome encompasses physical characteristics such as altered stream morphology and hydrographs, as well 20,23,24 . Salmonid species face numerous additional threats, including novel nonnative species, hatchery practices, and climate change 34,55,57,58 . The framework we developed here could be modified to accommodate these and other threats, by adding the necessary geospatial data layers, making it applicable to a range of conservation challenges in urbanized settings.…”

“…Costs are likely to vary widely among the myriad potential conservation actions. For example, retrofitting the built environment (a restoration action) is critical to reducing negative effects of stormwater in urban areas, but is likely more expensive than incorporating clean water strategies into future development plans and limiting growth 55,76 . In addition, costs of preservation vary geographically 72 and with the approach used (e.g., establishing conservation easements versus preserves 77 ).…”

Evaluating the consequences of common assumptions in run reconstructions on Pacific-salmon biological status assessments

“…Status assessments form the basis of many conservation decision-support tools, though they have limited influence without clear and binding linkages to policy and decision making. Methods to determine the allocation of resources that maximize biodiversity conservation, such as Priority Threat Management (Martin et al 2018; Carwardine et al 2019; Walsh et al 2020), are most effective when baseline information on status can help identify which threatened populations are at highest risk of extirpation without management intervention, and which are most likely to benefit from recovery planning given limited resources. Metrics of biological status may also be useful for defining recovery goals and as performance measures when evaluating the effectiveness of different management strategies (e.g., Walsh et al 2020).…”