Labrador-Nature-Atlas-Vol1.pdf

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is a non-profit, non-advocacy organization that takes a business-like and supportive approach to land conservation and the preservation of Canada’s biological diversity. Its activities involve creative partnerships and solutions with individuals, corporations, community and First Nation groups, conservation organizations and government agencies that shares its goals. Since 1962, NCC and its supporters have helped protect 2.6 million acres (1 million hectares) of ecologically significant lands and waters across Canada, and have assisted and advised the owners and managers of many more in their approaches to nature conservation. The Labrador NaTure aTLas is a product of the Labrador Conservation Blueprint, a partnership led by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) from 2009 to 2013. The goal was to assemble, map and share the best-available digital information about the geography and biological features of Labrador; describe Labrador’s cological diversity; support conservation and informed resource stewardship; and share results openly with interested audiences. Relative to southern Canada, there is little highquality information available about Labrador’s natural environment. Thus, NCC’s first priority was to improve access to ecological information, and develop new ways to assess data so they can be more fully considered in land-use decisions and development approvals. Since 2000, NCC has completed Conservation Blueprints of eighteen ecological regions across Canada, providing science-based information on which to base conservation and land-use decisions, based on the assembly, creation and analysis of information using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These have identified regional conservation priorities, places where conservation has already occurred and priorities for the conservation of native species and ecological systems. (Reports and mapping are available online at http://science.nature conservancy. ca/resources/docs/.)