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2.7.5 Coordinated Aquatic Monitoring Program CAMP CAMP is a long-term monitoring program launched by Manitoba Hydro and the Province of Manitoba
in 2008. The program tracks the environmental impacts of Manitoba Hydro development on aquatic ecosystem health CAMP, 2014. The pilot segment of the program ran for three years to test and
standardize protocols and methodologies. Data pertaining to impacts on hydrometrics, water quality, lower trophic levels, ish community, mercury levels in ish, phytoplankton algae and sediment quality
are published every three years in technical reports.
These studies provide invaluable information relevant to the northern NCRB, and these can be used to start to connect the dots and characterize the relevant portions of the basin to create an ecosystem-based
management plan.
2.7.6 Regional Cumulative Effects Assessment RCEA, Phases I and II Using the Clean Environment Commission’s Bipole III recommendations as a point of departure,
Manitoba Hydro and the Government of Manitoba conducted the RCEA to contextualize socioeconomic and environmental impacts of hydroelectric development. The interim results from Phase I showed
how the project would gather and report on cumulative impacts in the north, while Phase II provide quantitative and qualitative analysis of these cumulative social, economic and environmental systems
excluding the Grand Rapids and Winnipeg River stations Manitoba Hydro, 2015c, 2015d.
2.8 Ecosystem Services from the NCRB
2.8.1 Ecosystem Services: Beneits from Watersheds Large river basins such as the NCRB provide the foundation for clean water, food, economic
development, energy systems and much more. In order to ensure the continued low of these varied and often interdependent ecosystem beneits, these watersheds must be maintained with some emphasis on
their ecological systems. We approached management and governance of the northern NCRB from the perspective of ecosystem services, recognizing that the basin’s lands and waters are the lifeblood of its
socioeconomic and environmental well-being. They are drivers of sector-based economic development e.g., mining, forestry, hydro, tourism, but they also provide important value in less tangible ways, such
as habitat provision, water puriication and spiritual enrichment. Our synthesis of the climate, geography, ecology, land, water and socioeconomic features of the research region informed our ecosystem services
analysis.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment MA, 2005 popularized the idea that human well-being is inextricably interlinked with how ecosystems function and are managed see the MA framework in Figure
14. The term ecosystem management has gained popularity as a way to identify, communicate, assign economic value, monitor and create scenarios to understand and manage natural systems better for
sustainable development.
Generally, ecosystem services are categorized into four main services Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005a:
• Provisioning services: Food, raw materials such as wood ibre, fresh water, biological resources
such as biochemicals with pharmaceutical uses, and materials such as metals and rock.
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• Regulating services: Beneits obtained through regulating “ecosystem processes, including air
quality maintenance, climate regulation, erosion control and water regulation” Widmann et al., 2012
• Cultural services: Non-material beneits obtained through spiritual, religious and cognitive
experiences, recreation, ecotourism, education, values, cultural, heritage and aesthetic experiences.
• Supporting services: Beneits that are crucial to the production of other ecosystem services and
can include processes such as photosynthesis, nutrient and water cycling, and soil formation. The impacts of these services on people are indirect or occur over long periods.
Figure 14. Schematic diagram shows the relationship between the different categories of the ecosystem
services and the constituents of well-being
Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; reprinted with permission.
2.8.2 Ecosystem Services in the NCRB As discussed in the previous sections, the northern NCRB’s wide range of ecosystem services contributes
considerably to the region’s economy. The basin is a complex ecosystem that supplies numerous provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services through its land, water, forests and other
ecosystem components.
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Speciically, the NCRB provides the following ecosystem beneits:
Provisioning services: The basin provides for a subsistence-based traditional food economy, and provides clean water, isheries, hydroelectricity, minerals and metals from mining, etc. The value of
commercial isheries in northern Manitoba lakes was CAD 1.77 million in 2011–12 down from CAD 6.9 million in 2002–03 Manitoba Sustainable Development, 2013. In 2014, the value of mining in
Manitoba was approximately CAD 1.4 billion metallic and industrial minerals with ive producing mines in or near the northern NCRB as well as signiicant ongoing exploration Growth, Enterprise and
Trade, 2016. In 2016 Manitoba Hydro produced hydroelectricity worth roughly CAD 1,800 million Manitoba Hydro, 2016. In 2015, forestry in Manitoba some of it in the northern NCRB contributed
CAD 387 million to provincial forestry exports Natural Resources Canada, 2015.
Regulating services: The basin’s hydrology is a key component of lood and drought management in the region. Watersheds also regulate water quality, as they have the ability to ilter sediments and
discharge from human activities such as mining and natural events. Erosion control is a regulating service in which vegetative cover plays a vital role in soil retention while water infrastructure e.g.,
dams, artiicial drainage systems may have adverse impacts. Water regulation afects the “timing and magnitude of runof, and looding,” which is strongly inluenced by changes in land cover and any water
infrastructure Vymazal, 2011. Boreal forests cover approximately 570,000 km
2
of land in Manitoba and of that, an estimated 40 per cent is wetlands Ducks Unlimited Canada, 2015; Wells, 2014;. According
to Badiou n.d., the boreal is considered one of the “largest land-based carbon storehouses.” Globally it is estimated to store “more than 700 billion metric tonnes of carbon in its trees, wetlands and soils”
Badiou, n.d..
Cultural services: The relatively large Indigenous population in the North relies on the region’s ecosystems for traditional use and subsistence economies, as described in Section 2.5.3. The watershed
ecosystem supports traditional hunting and ishing, herbs and medicines, recreation and spiritual uses and more. In addition, the basin also supports a signiicant tourism industry that largely focuses on the
natural environment and depends on the healthy functioning of ecosystems. The northern region of the province contributes CAD 116 million to the provincial economy from tourism per year, amounting
to 8 per cent of tourism spending in Manitoba Travel Manitoba, 2016. In 2012, tourism dollars amounted to CAD 41.9 million for transportation, CAD 26.4 million for food and CAD 15.9 million for
accommodation Travel Manitoba, 2012. The roughly 530,000 visitors in that year were primarily from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec, though the 25,000 visitors from the United States spent the most
per person. These visitors helped support 816 tourism-related jobs in businesses related to attractions, accommodations, parks including campgrounds and RV parks, lodgesoutitters, suppliers of outdoor
experiences, festivals and events Travel Manitoba, 2012.
Supporting services: The watershed’s large forest tracts, boreal wetlands and other ecological features provide habitat for a large variety of ish, waterfowl, wildlife and other species in a region of high
biodiversity. For instance, the commercial ishery in Manitoba includes walleye, northern pike, lake whiteish, sucker, trout, cisco, sauger, goldeye, carp and yellow perch in declining order of value caught,
along with lake whiteish roe Manitoba Sustainable Development, 2013.
A review of the ecology, land-use and socioeconomic systems in the basins emphasizes the ecosystem services provided by the basin. Quantifying the existing market values of these services provides a
starting point to understanding the full economic value of this region, reinforcing the need for its
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sustainable management. To maintain or even enhance these ecosystem services, we must address growing pressures on both their supply and demand, such as land-use changes in watersheds coupled
with increasing human demand for water. Therefore, biophysical understanding and policy mechanisms are crucial in conserving the delivery of desired services. In their assessment of publications related to
ecosystem goods and services EGS, Wong et al. 2015, p. 108 ind that, while a lot of attention has been placed on valuation and identiication, there “has been minimal improvement on understanding the
relationships between ecological mechanisms and ecosystem services to create the realistic end products that managers need.”
Ecosystem services, including in the northern NCRB, include “the beneits to people of terrestrial ecosystem efects on fresh water” Brauman, 2007, 6.6. In order to understand “traditional hydrologic
science into an ecosystem services context, it is useful to focus on four key attributes of each service: quantity, quality, location, and timing of low” Brauman, 2007, 6.23. In addition, external drivers such
as climate change must also be considered, especially in determining anticipated and unanticipated future scenarios.
2.9 Summary
