American Bison - Buffalo Field Campaign

10.3 The “Ecosystem Approach” for
Designing Ecological Restoration
of Bison
The Ecosystem Approach (Shepherd 2004) is a strategy for
integrated management of land, water, and living resources that
promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way.
It is the primary framework for action under the Convention on
Biological Diversity. The Ecosystem Approach puts people, and
their natural resource use practices, at the centre of decision-
making. Because of this, it can be used to seek an appropriate
balance between conservation and use of biological diversity
in areas where there are many resource users combined with
important natural values.
Planning and implementing ecological restoration of bison may
involve multi-tenured landscapes and is a complex undertaking
that requires assessing biophysical and social components,
evaluating and engaging stakeholders, considering economic
conditions, and cultivating long-term partnerships. Ecological
restoration planning is a dynamic process, best achieved
incrementally, with ample opportunities for iteration and
feedback. The following elements provide guidance for agencies,
organisations and individuals interested in designing ecological
restoration projects.
10.3.1 Defining the biological landscape
and objectives
Ecological restoration of bison considers the species as an
interactive element of an ecologically functioning restoration
area that provides the size and distribution of habitats necessary
to support a restored bison population. Defining a biological
landscape for this purpose involves determining the size and
refining the boundary of the area, identifying the resource
requirements of bison and other focal elements including their
spatial needs, and mapping the distribution of habitat resources
(Loucks et al. 2004). These tasks can be achieved by a variety of
processes including expert-driven workshops and local working
groups aided by technical experts. For example, the IUCN/SSC
Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) has extensive
experience managing conservation planning workshops using
its signature processes, the Conservation Action Management
Plan and Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA),
to assist groups in developing species level action plans (www.
cbsg.org/cbsg). A Landscape Cumulative Effects Simulator
(ALCES®; Forem Technologies; www.alces.ca) is another
software tool that is rapidly gaining acceptance by industry,
government, and the public as an effective simulation tool for
exploring sustainable resource and landscape management
alternatives.
Whatever the decision support
system is used, common
to each process is the
need to have stakeholders
(conservation groups,
wildlife biologists, relevant
government agencies, and
local private and public
land managers) involved.
Agreements are typically
required on the size and
boundaries of the ecosystem
and the potential biological
capacity of the area to meet the needs of bison restoration and
other conservation and community objectives.
10.3.2 Defining the social landscape, the main
stakeholders, and cultivating partnerships
Large-scale ecological restoration involves multiple levels
of social complexity, and typically involves more than one
jurisdiction. The geographic potential for ecological restoration
of bison in North America is illustrated in a general sense by
Sanderson et al. (2008). Priority areas may be considered as
having the potential to become conservation landscapes (sensu
Loucks et al. 2004) that have ecological and social potential for
restoration of bison in the intermediate to long term. Careful
assessment and understanding of social, economic, legal, and
political conditions within candidate landscapes is an essential
preparatory step for planning and implementing restoration
projects (Loucks et al. 2004; The Nature Conservancy 2005),
particularly where community support and involvement is
required (Child and Lyman 2005).
The priority areas identified by Sanderson et al. (2008) represent,
in the collective opinion of a group of experts, a hypothesis of
where the most promising places for ecological recovery exist,
considering future land use trends, economic forces, human
demography, and climate. Understanding the regional social-
ecological system in such target areas is an important feature of
effective conservation planning (Driver et al. 2003). In addition to
assessing the biophysical capability of a candidate area, detailed
assessments are required to define the human community within
the ecosystem boundaries. Social landscape analysis (Field et
al. 2003) provides a tool for understanding and mapping the
human landscape. It requires collecting, analysing and mapping
human demographic and economic data, and information on
land development and ownership patterns and trends. Social
landscapes consist of the demographic patterns of people
(location, density, age and gender structure, industry and
employment patterns, and governance boundaries) in relation to
land and resources.
“Conservation
landscape” refers
to a spatial plan for
a priority area that
meets fundamental
conservation objectives
while addressing other
socio-economic needs
(Loucks et al. 2004).
American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines 2010 107