Context
Canada’s Pathway to Canada Target 1 committed the country to conserving 17% of its terrestrial and inland water areas by 2020. Measuring freshwater connectivity consistently across all protected areas was a gap in that work.
Confluvio’s role
Between December 2019 and March 2021, Confluvio worked with the Pathway team, the Connectivity Working Group and individuals from Parks Canada through workshops, webinars and individual discussions. Together they defined indicators for measuring the structural freshwater connectivity of protected areas, usable consistently across Canada and potentially globally.
Methods and data
The work adapted the free-flowing rivers methodology (Grill et al. 2019, Nature) to protected areas at river-reach scale, covering all protected areas in Canada. It produced two complementary indicators: the Integrated Protection Index (IPI), which quantifies how much of the local and upstream area of any river location is protected; and the Connectivity Status Index (CSI), the proposed principal indicator, which measures fluvial connectivity and human pressures in and beyond protected areas.
Results
The project delivered an indicator set for the Pathway to Canada Target 1 freshwater connectivity work. The report, data and source code are available on request.