Practitioners Guide to the Risk Management Framework for DFO Habitat Management Staff

4.0 Appendices

Appendix A: Definitions

Activity: Within the context of the Pathways of Effects diagrams, activities represent the component parts, or building blocks of development proposals.

Attribute: Specific, often measurable criteria or characteristics. In the context of Risk Assessment, attributes offer a systematic and consistent way of describing variables such as Scale of Negative Effect and Sensitivity of Fish and Fish Habitat.

Contingency Planning: Management planning utilizing alternative methods or strategies that enable the project to continue if known potential effects increase the risk of the project beyond that which was originally estimated.

Destruction: Any permanent change of fish habitat that renders it completely unsuitable for future production of fish, regardless of the means employed in causing the change (e.g. by removal, infilling, blockage etc).

Development Proposal(s): A description of an activity or activities related to a proposed development.

Disruption: Any change to fish habitat occurring for a limited period that reduces its capacity to support one or more life processes of fish.

Effect: A change brought about by a cause or agent. In the context of the Pathways of Effects diagrams, effects reflect a change in fish and fish habitat which has the potential to influence the productive capacity of fish habitat.

Environmental Process Modernization Plan (EPMP): Consistent with the Government of Canada's Smart Regulation agenda, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is renewing its Habitat Management Program through its Environmental Process Modernization Plan. This Plan, approved by the Minister in February 2004, is among the top priorities of DFO and is part of a broader effort to ensure DFO programs reflect the current priorities of Canadians.

Habitat Compensation: The replacement of natural habitat, increase in the productivity of existing habitat, or maintenance of fish production by artificial means in circumstances dictated by social and economic conditions, where mitigation techniques and other measures are not adequate to maintain habitats for Canada's fisheries resources.

Harmful Alteration: Any change to fish habitat that reduces its long term capacity to support one or more life processes of fish but does not permanently eliminate the habitat.

Harmful Alteration, Disruption or Destruction of Fish Habitat (HADD): Any change in fish habitat that reduces its capacity to support one or more life processes of fish.

Integrated Resource Planning: The process whereby federal, provincial, territorial and municipal resource management agencies consult each other and private sector interests to plan for the future use of natural resources including forests, minerals, fish, land, water, wildlife and other resources.

Mitigation: Actions taken during the planning, design, construction and operation of works and undertakings to alleviate potential adverse effects on the productive capacity of fish habitat.

Operational Statement: Documents developed by DFO for proponents that provide nationally consistent advice on standard measures to apply to selected activities that are low risk to fish habitat.

Pathway: A line on a Pathways of Effects diagram used to represent a cause and effect relationship existing between activities, stressors and effects.

Pathways of Effects: Diagrams that describe development proposals in terms of the activities that are involved, the type of cause-effect relationship that are known to exist for that activity, and the mechanisms by which stressors ultimately lead to effects in the aquatic environment.

Precautionary Principle: Also referred to as the precautionary approach, recognizes that the absence of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing decisions where there is a risk of serious or irreversible harm.

Productive Capacity: The maximum natural capability of habitats to produce healthy fish, safe for human consumption, or to support or produce aquatic organisms upon which fish depend.

Proponent: A person, company or corporation that has submitted, or plans to submit, a development proposal.

Review Process: The process followed by Habitat Management practitioners to ensure proposed developments are in compliance with the habitat protection provisions of the Fisheries Act.

Risk: For the purposes of this framework, risk is a term used to represent the expected impact of a development proposal on the productive capacity of fish habitat.

Risk Assessment: The process of identifying, measuring and predicting the likelihood of an unwanted event from occurring. Risk Assessment takes into account the probability of the event occurring, the consequences of the event, and the degree of uncertainty involved.

Risk Assessment Matrix: A two dimensional matrix which uses Scale of Negative Effect and Sensitivity of Fish and Fish Habitat to characterize the risk residual effects pose to the productive capacity of fish habitat.

Risk Communication: Transfer or exchange of information for the purpose of explaining risk and the reasons associated with making decisions.

Risk Management: The identification and implementation of management options for addressing unwanted events in order to achieve an overall objective.

Risk Management Framework: A systematic approach to gathering, evaluating, recording and disseminating information leading to recommendations for a position or action in response to an identified event. A framework to enable Habitat Management practitioners and proponents to better understand the nature of risk, and to manage it more systematically.

Stressors: An agent, condition, or other stimulus that causes stress to an organism.

Uncertainty: The amount that a predicted effect may differ from the true effect.