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Issues in Native Plant Conservation

Canada has an interesting and varied natural plant heritage. More than 3000 plant species existed in Canada before the 15th-century arrival of the first European immigrants. Those plants are integral to natural communities; more than just a backdrop and fodder for animals, native plants are the very fabric of the living landscape itself.

While the majority of Canadian native plant species have been able to co-exist with contemporary human society, a significant number are threatened with extinction because of human activities.

Why are there endangered plants in Canada? The answers are the same as for endangered animals. For a variety of reasons, we place plant species into jeopardy. We risk, damage or destroy whole populations or wild communities through fragmentation, conversion or eradication of natural habitats. We release invasive species from other parts of the world into our natural habitats (usually by accident), and change ensues. Some species we over-harvest. Others may be at risk because we've reduced their numbers below a point from which they can recover, or we've removed a pollinator they depend on.

Why should we be concerned? Regardless of the species and the kind of threat, protecting the diversity of native plants in Canada is protecting the natural heritage of our children.

Across Canada, many different organizations and individuals are trying to identify and remove the threats to individual species and to whole ecosystems before it's too late.

Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is the study of people's interrelationships with plants. As such, it relates strongly to the combined conservation of biological and cultural diversity: biocultural diversity.

The loss of species and habitats worldwide within the past century or so is well known, but less well recognized is that the diversity of human cultures and languages around the world is equally threatened. Indigenous Peoples are culturally distinct peoples, most of whom have resided in the same place for a long time period, usually for many generations. They have depended directly upon the resources of that place for their sustenance and livelihoods.

Their knowledge systems relating to plants are a common topic of research by ethnobotanists. Such knowledge systems include

• their use of plants for food, medicine, materials and other purposes
• their names for plants and botanical objects and concepts
• their understanding of plant succession and other ecological processes
• their attitudes and perspectives on plants and environments.

Many Indigenous groups are at high risk in terms of traditional-knowledge loss from loss of access to culturally important species and habitats, and cultural assimilation into the broader western urbanized society. This has serious implications for biological conservation because Indigenous and local peoples have such close familiarity with their surrounding environments. These peoples contribute important observations and knowledge about their homelands and the species living there.

They can also have developed cultural protocols and perspectives, and important ways of teaching and decision-making. This could help others in society better understand our impacts on other species. It may also help others find ways of reducing these impacts and protecting biodiversity.

Because of their close and enduring relationship with their environments, Indigenous and local peoples are knowledgeable about their surrounding flora and fauna (including the lifecycles, ecological requirements and interrelationships of these species). Also, many of these peoples have developed a strong ethic of caring, stewardship and responsibility towards other life forms. Their stories, songs, belief systems and ceremonies are replete with lessons of what can happen when people are careless in their treatment of nature. In many traditional cultures, children in these societies are taught from an early age never to take more than they need, never to waste what they take, and always to show appreciation and recognition of the other species that provide for them, whether it be for food, medicine or other purposes. It is probably no coincidence that the homelands of Indigenous Peoples are often in areas where biodiversity is greatest.

Because their knowledge of their homeplaces is multi-generational and very detailed (in terms of species, animal migration routes, lifecycles of plants and local weather patterns), Indigenous People often readily recognize environmental change. Aboriginal Peoples of northern Canada, for example, were among the first to recognize the signs of global climate change. Seaweed harvesters on the West Coast of Canada have noted a change in spring precipitation patterns that has seriously impacted their food harvesting and processing activities. When frogs or songbirds decrease in numbers, when berries become less productive over a period of years, or when trees start to look sick and stressed from drought or insect attacks, long-resident people notice these things almost immediately. Many Indigenous Peoples in Canada are worried about changes in species abundance, health and productivity they have witnessed over the past century.

Indigenous Peoples the world over have often been the first line of defense against habitat destruction and species depletion in their homelands. In many cases, they have philosophical perspectives, or worldviews, that attribute environmental disruption and loss, such as caused by storms, floods and other weather-related events, to wrong behaviour on the part of humans. In this perspective, they may well be close to the truth: climate scientists are confirming that it is not only global warming we are facing because of human activities, but global climate change, which includes more intensive storms, droughts and other climate related phenomena.

Conservation biologists and other scientists are starting to pay more attention to the knowledge and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and elsewhere; ethnobotany has shown us that there is more than one "way of knowing", and that by being more inclusive as we seek to solve problems such as biodiversity loss, we all benefit from the knowledge, observations and wisdom of those most directly dependent on local ecosystems.

Seasons and Biocultural Diversity in a Changing World
Watch the Lecture

Ethnobotanist Nancy Turner, of the University of Victoria, gave a popular lecture in 2010 at the Canadian Museum of Nature in which she explained the effects of changing global climate on the timing of seasonal events and related Traditional Knowledge.

Because the timing of seasonal events is changing, Indigenous Peoples are seeing a disruption in the choreography of their activities and predictions of when to harvest food and other resources.

Furthermore, traditional ecological knowledge complements scientific research in providing different kinds of information that can be used together to better understand some aspects of climate change.

Watch the lecture.

Invasive Alien Species

Invasive alien species have a significant environmental, social and economic impact worldwide and in Canada. According to the IUCN (The World Conservation Union), invasive alien species are second to habitat loss as the most important threat to biodiversity.

Lack of predators, diseases and competition have allowed invasive alien plants to spread widely into natural areas and agricultural lands with, in many cases, disastrous results. Such invasion can result in habitat degradation and disruption of ecosystem functions. This reduces the ability of a site to support a variety of native organisms, which in turn leads to a greatly reduced biological diversity. Native plants are also at risk from the introduction of invasive alien species such as insects, fungi or bacteria.

Governments, universities, non-governmental organizations and individuals are taking action to address the threat from invasive aliens. These actions include: preventing the introduction of new invaders, monitoring to detect their arrival or to keep track of their expansion, and research and management activities aimed at their control or elimination.

Find resources and organizations concerned with invasive alien species.

Pollination

Pollination is the movement of pollen from male anthers of a flower to female stigma of a flower. It can be between flowers of different plants (cross-pollination) or within flowers on the same plant (self-pollination). The end product of pollination is viable seed production.

Pollination happens because pollen travels. Many plants depend on animals to carry their pollen around. The animals involved are mostly insects, especially bees but also flies, beetles, moths, butterflies and others. Wind is also an important carrier of pollen.

For one-in-three bites of food we take, we can thank a bee or other pollinator. More than 75% of the food and medicinal plants that benefit humankind and 90% of all flowering plants rely on pollinators to produce healthy seeds and fruits.

Pollination is a key-stone ecological process in the wild and agriculture. Without it, plant reproduction would be limited to vegetative means, plants would not spread so easily and landscapes would be less-diversely and less-quickly re-colonized after fire, flooding, or erosion. Wildlife would have less to eat, and human diets would be bland and unappetizing.

We may be facing an imminent pollination crisis in which both wild and managed pollinators are disappearing at alarming rates. Major factors for the decline are believed to be the result of pesticides, invasive species, and fragmentation, degradation and destruction of habitat. Decisive action to remediate this situation is slow, due to a widespread assumption that pollination is a 'free service'.

Citizens can play an important role in sustaining pollinator populations. For example, because lawns offer little food for insect pollinators, planting a diversity of native flowers can help increase the number of pollinators in the area.

Find resources and organizations concerned with pollinators.