Ecological connectivity means how easily animals, plants, and resources can move across a landscape. It’s important for keeping nature healthy and making sure different species survive.
When animals and plants can travel and share resources between different places, it helps to:
When habitats are broken up into smaller pieces, called habitat fragmentation, it makes it harder for species to move around. This can cause:
There are three ways to think about ecological connectivity: how the land is arranged (structural connectivity), how animals actually move (functional connectivity), and a mix of both physical and actual movement (effective connectivity).
Structural connectivity means the way the land is physically set up to help animals and plants move around. Things like habitat corridors—strips of natural land connecting habitats—make it easier for species to travel from one place to another.
Functional connectivity is about how animals and plants actually move through the landscape. It depends on things like how they behave, the quality of the habitat, and the layout of the land.
Effective connectivity combines both how the land is arranged and how species move. It gives a full picture of how well animals, plants, and resources can travel and interact in an area.
You can also access the form here: Landscape Connectivity Questionnaire – Fill out form
| Resource Name | Organization's Name | Description of Resource | Type of Resource |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Value Landscapes GIS Layer | PCF & Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institution | The HVL broadly outlines areas of high intactness and low anthropogenic activity, incorporating structural and functional information. | Map |
| Divergent trends in structural landscape connectivity from historic and potential future grassland conversion in Alberta, Canada | In Alberta, a large portion of natural grasslands has been converted to agricultural cropland or other land uses, while the remaining natural grasslands are mainly used as rangeland. However, with increasing crop demand and food security concerns, there is a potential risk of further grassland conversion to cropland, particularly in areas where climate change may enhance suitability for farming. Here, we (1) quantified the impact of the present state of grasslands on maintaining landscape permeability; and (2) determined how the conversion of remaining grasslands to croplands could affect structural landscape connectivity at multiple spatial scales. | Research | |
| Landscape Connectivity Assessment for Biodiversity and Land Management | Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute | The goal of this project is to enable organizations and individuals to implement connectivity planning as part of their overall land management planning. | Information |
| Municipal Eco Toolkit | Miistakis Institute | Information | |
| Planning to Connect: A Guide to Incorporating Ecological Connectivity into Municipal Planning | Miistakis Institute | Developed by the Miistakis Institute, Planning to Connect provides a guide intended to support municipal planners and those who are affected by municipal plans. The guide includes a Policy Clause Catalogue, which provides example clauses, as well as a document library of cases. | Guide |
| Conecting the Dots: A Guide to Using Ecological Connectivity Modeling in Municipal Planning | Miistakis Institute | A guide prepared by the Miistakis Institute that outlines how planners can acquire and use connectivity mapping to inform planning questions, working in partnership with their GIS colleagues and local biologists. | Guide |
| Pulling the Levers: A Guide to Modelling and Mapping Ecological Connectivity | Miistakis Institute | A companion technical guide to “Connecting the Dots” that describes the process for modelling and mapping ecological connectivity. | Guide |
| Biodiviersity Conservation Strategy, Surrey, BC | City of Surrey | Developed in 2014, this strategy aims to preserve biodiversity in the City of Surrey, recognizing biodiversity as a key foundation of a health, livable and sustainable community. One of the key principles in this document is to enhance habitat connectivity by establishing natural corridors between habitat patches. | Plan |
| Human-Wildlife Coexistence: Recommendations for Improving Human-Wildlife Coexistene in the Bow Valley | Town of Canmore Town of Banff Government of Alberta | This report was developed by a technical working group of local experts and stakeholders to encourage coexistence between wildlife and humans, and to maintain habitat and healthy populations of wildlife across the landscape. Habitat connectivity via wildlife corridors is an important component of human-wildlife coexistence and is discussed in this document. | Information |
| Ottawa Greenspace Master Plan Strategies for Ottawa's Urban Greenspaces | City of Ottawa | The purpose of this document is to express Council’s vision for greenspace in the urban area and set policies for how this vision can be pursued. The goal is for there to be an adequate supply of high quality greenspace, linked to allow for movement through green corridors. | Plan |
| Our BiodiverCity: Calgary's 10-year biodiversity strategic plan | City of Calgary | This plan is based on the principle of protection, development and management of Calgary Parks and ecosystems in support of biodiversity. The plan includes monitoring of ecological integrity in the City, including a focus on linkages between habitats. | Plan |
| Riparian Strategy: Sustaining Healthy Rivers and Communities | City of Calgary | The City of Calgary developed this document to guide the protection, restoration and management of riparian areas in the City. One of the Plan’s goals is ensuring riparian areas are connected, which is critical to protecting riparian health. | Guide |
| Open Space & Trails Plan | Town of Canmore | The guiding principles of Canmore’s open space plan aim to integrate human use and respect for (and maintenance of) wildlife habitat and corridors. Wildlife habitat connectivity (via corridors) is one of the guiding principles. | Plan |
| Green Bylaws Toolkit for Conserving Sensitive Ecosystems and Green Infrastructure | This document is an important resource for understanding how municipalities can safeguard the environment, from a regional to a site level. It clearly explains each tool, and provides case studies and examples of bylaws that are in use in British Columbia. This document explains the importance of mapping green spaces and their ecological connectivity. | Information | |
| Green Infrastructure in Calgary's Mobility Corridors | City of Calgary | This project report proposes design principles and a related palette of green infrastructure strategies to help Calgary maximize environmental benefits in mobility corridors. The document explains how Calgary’s green infrastructure can enhance urban biodiversity and habitat connectivity in/via its Mobility Corridors. | Information |
| Background Report: Biodiversity-Led Green Infrastructure in a Changing Climate | Adaptation to Climate Change Team, Simon Fraser University | This document combines workshop input, literature review, and case studies of green infrastructure approaches as nature-based solutions to climate change. The case studies are at various scales and designed to communicate the benefits to biodiversity that can be achieved by taking an ecosystem approach to green infrastructure implementation. Connectivity for species is described and case studies in Alberta are included. | Information |
| Pronghorn Connectivity Action Plan | Miistakis Institute | Plan | |
| Connecting wildlife habitats for a healthy planet | Parks Canada | Information | |
| Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative Mapping Resources | Central Grasslands Roadmap Initiative | Map | |
| National priority areas for ecological corridors | Parks Canada | Map | |
| Connect: Calgary's Parks Plan | City of Calgary | This document guides the planning, development, and management of Calgary’s park system. Connectivity for people and wildlife is one of the strategic directions, with 'Protect and Enhance' as an action item to facillitate connectivity. | Guide |
Please email coordinator@albertapcf.org to request it.
With the generous support of our Saskatchewan PCAP Partners the webinar provided an opportunity for 60 participants including workshop invitees as well as other interested parties from the PCF/PCAP networks to hear about the following projects:
Two dozen invited expert participants attended the workshop representing a diverse group including colleagues from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana and Idaho. Indigenous peoples were represented by two colleagues from the Kainai First Nation and the Blackfeet Tribe link to participants spreadsheet. Following an introductory presentation to set the scene and recap highlights from the webinar Connecting Corridors Review.Ian Dyson participants spent the day in both plenary and break-out sessions brainstorming on identifying what, where, why and criteria priorities, along with recommendations for priority locations. Following is a summary of 18 surveys that were submitted at the end of the workshop day:
In order to build capacity to effectively address the conserving connecting corridors outcome, following a Request for Proposals, the PCF let a contract with 02 Planning and Design Inc. to produce a literature review report focused on prairie and parkland Alberta addressing key habitats to be connected, movement facilitators and inhibitors and mitigation options. The consultant was asked to describe key movement and connectivity characteristics for waterfowl, grassland birds, raptors, amphibians, reptiles, large and small mammals, and plants. The report, “Connecting Habitats in the Prairies of Alberta: What Does This Mean and How Do We Manage For It?” was published in 2017.
Following publication of the 02 report, the PCF Board of Directors struck a work group to review the report and craft a path forward.
Current membership of this group is: Ruiping Luo (Chair), Alvin First Rider, Ashlyn Herron, Benjamin Misener, Emily Holden, Ian Dyson, Molly Bannister, Neena Jordan, Robert Sissons, Ron McNeil, Sarah Goodman, Sasha Harriott and Stefano Liccioli, with Samantha Van Ham providing secretariat support. The group identified the need to clarify justifiable spatial priorities as a prerequisite to further meaningful progress and that a 2019 ‘experts workshop’ was needed, focused on ‘what, where and why’.
Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum