Protecting boreal caribou habitat can help conserve biodiversity and safeguard large quantities of soil carbon in Canada

Johnson, C. A., Drever, R., Kirby, P. Neave, E. & Martin, A. E.

Boreal caribou require large areas of undisturbed habitat for persistence. Here we ask: Can protection of habitat for boreal caribou help Canada meet its commitments under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change? We first identified hotspots of high conservation value based on: 1) three measures of biodiversity for at risk species; 2) areas of climate refugia forecasted to remain climatically stable; and, 3) areas with high belowground soil carbon. We then evaluated the overlap among hotspot types and how well hotspots were represented in Canada’s network of protected and conserved areas. While hotspots are widely distributed across the boreal caribou distribution, with at least 80% of the area falling within at least one hotspot type, only 3% of the distribution overlaps three or more hotspots. Moreover, the protected areas network only captures about 10% of all hotspots, with taxonomic diversity, climate refugia, and soil carbon hotspots occurring at lower percentages than expected. These findings illustrate the potential co-benefits of habitat protection for caribou to biodiversity and ecosystem services and suggest caribou may be a good proxy for future protected areas planning and for developing effective conservation strategies in regional assessments.