History
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2015) |
Since the 1990s it was recognized that Alberta needed a comprehensive provincial biodiversity monitoring program but at that time the province did not have the capacity to conduct such a program. [8]
Phase 1 (1998-2002) of what was then called Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program (ABMP) was funded by $1 M cash from Alberta forest industries, oil and gas industries, the provincial government, and non-government organizations. [8]
A team of more that 20 scientists identified protocols to survey a broad diversity of biota, habitat structures, vegetation communities, and landscapes patterns within Alberta. These protocols have been reviewed by other scientists from across North America and have been amalgamated into an integrated design that will effectively and efficiently survey all elements. The ABMP is designed to monitor long-term, broad-scale changes in biodiversity, many of which are anticipated to be difficult to detect because they occur slowly over time. The ABMP will facilitate comparisons among geographic regions, and will feed information into an adaptive management process so that resource managers can evaluate long-term sustainability of biodiversity and natural resources. Information and analyses generated from the ABMP will be used to delineate potential causal relationships between development events and changes in biodiversity. Above all, the ABMP is designed to be scientifically credible, transparent, and to satisfy the needs of government, industry, and the public. This program will provide early warning of biodiversity change, and reduce the cost of sustaining biodiversity by reducing the need for expensive species recovery programs.
— Alberta Research Council 2003
Between 1998 and 2003 a group of researchers reviewed literature regarding protocols for sampling terrestrial biota and habitat structures. Scientists involved in the research included "Dan Farr, Chris Shank, Rich Moses, Stan Boutin, Erin Bayne (vertebrates), Phil Lee, Steve Hanus (forest structure and vascular plants), Jennifer Doubt, Rene Belland (mosses), Anna-Liisa Sippola, Jogeir Stokland (fungi), Neville Winchester, Bert Finnamore, Jeff Battigelli, Heather Proctor (arthropods), and others." [9] Jim Schieck, Chris Shank and Dan Farr combined these protocols into an integrated suite "designed to be cost effective and capable of monitoring a diversity of biota, over broad spatial scales and long time periods." [9] In a 2007 interview ABMI lead scientist, Jim Schieck of the Alberta Research Council, described how the ABMI "program was developed in the last 5 years, 6 or 7 years." The team of 7 or 8 people at the University of Alberta were investigating effective management and monitoring of biota using statistical data management on species and habitats and ecosystems to set benchmarks for future reference. [10]
Phase 2 (2003-2007) involved the development of a prototype "designed to test the protocols, develop systems and generate product streams to the satisfaction of the sponsors and potential future clients." Funding for 2003 was $675,000. [8] By 2006 the team had completed the background scientific development and moved into the prototype project, a small scale program. [10]
The ABMI began working in 2003 [11] : 511 and at that time one of the ABMI projects involved working with a small company in Saskatoon to develop equipment with highly sensitive microphones to record bird vocalizations digitally that could then be interpreted in a laboratory setting. [12] This standardized the process using "technology that records bird calls at a very fine level, and then having an expert go through the calls to identify the birds correctly." [12]
In 2006 the Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) at the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program published A Manual for Estimating Biodiversity Intactness for the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program: Description and Working Example. [13]
With funding from ABMI, a team of researchers from Alberta Research Council and the University of Alberta used winter mammal tracking sites in the boreal forest of Alberta to measure biodiversity intactness to be used as baselines in monitoring biodiversity. The "southern boreal forest had the lowest intactness and the greatest human footprint." They published their findings in an article in Biological Conservation. [14] : 403
However, from 2007 to 1 April 2013, the ABMI's financing and administration was not self-managed but was dependent on the University of Alberta's systems. [3]
In 2012 the Province of Alberta passed legislation to enable the ABMI to generate and collect funds to finance their program. [3] "New legislation to formally establish the provincial monitoring entity was expected in the fall of 2013." [3] By February 2012 although the ABMI was "identified as a key component of the Joint Canada-Alberta Monitoring Plan and has many strong elements – scientific leadership, publicly accessible information, and value-neutral result presentation" the Institute had not secured full funding which limited "its ability to deliver sound monitoring data." [15] By 2013 the private sector increased payments $4,190,445 from $2,896,000 in 2012. [3] In 2012 the Government of Alberta gave $5,205,000 and increased that to $5,305,000 in 2013 when the Government of Canada decreased their funding to $0. [3]
A 2014 ABMI report commissioned by the Canadian Oilsands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), one of ABMI's stakeholders, showed a decline of 20 per cent among bird species in northern Alberta. The report covered all three oil sands areas, Peace River, Fort McMurray and Cold Lake. ABMI board member and Pembina Institute Director, Simon Dyer, described how "what gets measured, gets managed." While "longtime agriculture on private land has a bigger footprint on northern Alberta landscape than the oilsands industry or forestry", the former is static whereas the latter are expanding and they are on Crown land where the government has more authority. [16]
