The State of Canada's Environment — 1996

Preface

“The State of Canada's Environment - 1996” is Canada's third national state of the environment (SOE) report. As such, it continues the ongoing evolution in national environmental reporting that began several decades ago.

Canada's first national report, released in 1986, was primarily the work of two scientists, Dr. Peter M. Bird, Environment Canada, and Dr. David Rapport, Statistics Canada. This pioneering document, originally intended mainly for a scientific audience, used a forward-looking ecosystem approach, including a stress–response framework, to organize and present information on the state of the environment. At the time of its release, there was no established system for continuous environmental reporting in Canada.

This changed significantly in December 1986, when the federal government authorized Environment Canada and Statistics Canada to establish an ongoing SOE reporting program, with support from other federal agencies. This directive was followed by passage of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in 1988, which made it a legislated requirement for the Government of Canada to "provide information to the people of Canada on the state of the Canadian environment."

This fundamental strengthening and refocusing of environmental reporting to meet the needs of all Canadians was evident in “The State of Canada's Environment - 1991”. This edition of the report was, from the beginning, written and designed specifically for a nonscientific audience of interested Canadians. The ecosystem approach and stress–response framework of the 1986 report were translated into a less technical presentation, built on providing answers to four basic questions:

• What is happening in Canada's environment? (environmental conditions and trends)
• Why is it happening? (link to human activities)
• Why is it significant? (environmental, social, and economic consequences)
• What are Canadians doing about it? (management responses to environmental change)

Attempts at answers were presented in a report that emphasized interpretation rather than presentation of raw data. The ratio of text to graphics was modified from the 1986 report, and elements such as an index and a glossary enhanced the material for a nontechnical audience.

Just as it was important to change the product itself, it was equally important to change the process used to prepare the report. One fundamental change, the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders, was designed to increase the credibility and balance of the published report. In 1988, for the first time, a Public Advisory Committee on SOE Reporting (PAC), comprising 10 Canadians from nongovernmental organizations, was created to provide strategic direction and advice. In addition, federal participation increased from two to eight agencies. From 2 main authors in 1986, the number of authors and main contributors expanded to 100 experts from all stakeholder groups. To enhance accuracy and credibility, the number of internal and external reviewers was increased. In total, 99 external peer reviews were solicited to complement about 100 reviews by federal experts.

The 1991 report was the result of a strategy in which the process was as important as the product. The involvement of so many stakeholders resulted in a more complete, balanced, and credible document than could have been produced by any single organization. The final product was a 750-page book with 27 chapters covering human activities, environmental components, regional case studies, and priority issues.

“The State of Canada's Environment - 1991” was a Canadian best-seller, selling over 5 000 copies in only three months. Over half of Canadian colleges and universities have used the 1991 report as a resource document or required text. In 1996, the press run of 20 000 copies of the 1991 report is virtually sold out.

As work began on the third national report, additional changes in both contents and process were driven by an extensive evaluation of the 1991 report, the need for a holistic approach, and reduced resources.

The goal remained the same as it had been for the 1991 report: that is, to provide timely, accurate, and accessible environmental information, integrated with socioeconomic factors, to improve decision-making and support progress towards sustainability.

Likewise, those who prepared both reports accepted four fundamental goals:

1) to advance the concepts associated with SOE reporting;
2) to advance SOE products;
3) to create a report that would meet client needs; and
4) to achieve credibility through the involvement of a broad range of stakeholders.

1) Advancing the concepts associated with SOE reporting

Since 1991, many provinces and territories have contributed their own advances to SOE reporting. As part of the government's overall efforts at harmonization, the managers of the third national report have tried to ensure that concepts, indicators, and data in the 1996 report are compatible with those in use within other jurisdictions and organizations that currently share responsibility for and interest in the environment.

Recently, both within Canada and internationally, there has been a strong movement towards sustainability as a priority for governments. Thus, advances in defining and measuring sustainability, reflected in such widely used documents as Caring for the Earth (1991, the updated version of the 1980 World Conservation Strategy) and Agenda 21 (1992), had to be incorporated into the conceptual framework of the 1996 report, which is a combination of three elements, as outlined below:

a) An ecosystem approach

For the purposes of the 1996 SOE report, an ecosystem approach is defined as a comprehensive and holistic assessment of the state of the environment. This approach recognizes the complexity of ecosystems, emphasizes that people are indeed part of ecosystems, and adopts ecozones as spatial reporting units.

Such an approach examines the interconnections within and among component parts. Interactions can occur (1) among elements within a single ecozone, (2) between ecozones, (3) among environmental components and human activities, and (4) among social, economic, and environmental elements. Throughout the report, an effort is made to document such interactions.

b) Requirements for sustainability

Sustainable development can be defined as activities that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Although debate on definitions continues, there is growing understanding of the social, economic, and environmental conditions necessary for sustainability. To be useful as a tool for informed decision-making, an SOE report must measure progress towards this objective.

According to recent work, such as Caring for the Earth, Our common future (the Brundtland report), and Agenda 21, some key requirements of sustainability are as follows:

Environmental objectives

• Maintenance of life support systems;
• Preservation of biological diversity; and
• Maintenance of the productive capacity of species and ecosystems.

Economic and social objectives

• Efficient use of nonrenewable resources;
• Improving the quality of human life; and
• Protecting and promoting human health.

This report addresses sustainability mainly from the environmental perspective. It is intended to complement ongoing work by Health Canada and Statistics Canada in advancing our ability to gauge progress towards the social and economic objectives of sustainability. Thus, the 1996 SOE report uses life support systems, biological diversity, and productive capacity as benchmarks against which environmental conditions and changes can be interpreted.

c) The four SOE questions

Feedback from readers of the 1991 report indicated that answers to the four SOE questions corresponded to the information that they sought. Consequently, those preparing the 1996 report retained this approach. This ensured that clients' needs were met and that a measure of continuity with the previous two reports was maintained. However, a fifth question was added to make a more direct link with sustainability:

• Is this sustainable? (are human actions depleting environmental capital?)

2) Advancing SOE products

As client needs changed, SOE reporting products had to keep pace. For the first time, The State of Canada's Environment is available not only in print but also on the Internet's World Wide Web, and the CD-ROM of the 1996 edition will be more widely available than was the prototype 1991 CD-ROM.

In addition, international organizations, other countries, and some other Canadian jurisdictions and agencies now regularly produce SOE reports that help to meet the information needs of Canadians.

3) Meeting clients' needs

The response of over 2 000 purchasers of the 1991 SOE report to a user's survey provided a clear indication of their information needs and preferred formats. Approximately 97% of respondents to the survey indicated that the organization of the 1991 report met their needs and that the different regional, national, and issues perspectives had to be retained. It was critical to respond to readers' demands, retaining the best elements, while adding topics and elements they felt were missing in 1991.

Similarly, as over 90% of those purchasing the 1991 report indicated that they did so for partly or entirely work-related reasons, it is clear that there is tremendous potential for bringing environmental considerations into the decision-making process of business, government, and other sectors. The 1996 report had to meet the information needs of these users.

The challenge was to strengthen the ecosystem approach while keeping the contents accessible to users. Readers valued the ease of accessing information at different geographic scales (local, regional, national, and global), with the regional case study chapters being particularly popular. An ecological approach recognizes that different levels of integration are required for a holistic perspective. Thus, the structure of the 1996 report focuses on these different levels and the interactions among them.

Part I — Ecosystems and people

• Sustainability is identified as an overall goal, and some criteria for measuring sustainability are presented.

• The ecosystem approach is introduced and the complexities and interactions within and among its components are described.

• Canada is set in a global context.

• A chapter about Canadian lifestyles recognizes that people are part of ecosystems and that individual actions have effects at every level, from local to global.

Part II — Canadian ecozones

• The 15 terrestrial and 5 marine ecozones in Canada, first used in the 1986 report, have been grouped into 7 units for the purpose of the 1996 report and its nonspecialist audience.

• Each chapter describes the biophysical characteristics of an ecozone or group of ecozones, explains the effects of human activities on those ecozones, and assesses the sustainability of the overall ecosystem.

• The authors have tried to integrate social, economic, and environmental considerations, while recognizing the need for trade-offs.

• Each chapter highlights the particular issues and/or linkages of particular concern in that area.

• In many cases, the text identifies data gaps that prevent conclusions about the nature of linkages between human activities and environmental trends.

Part III — National overviews

• These chapters integrate information on air, water, land, and biota, as well as human activities, for the country as a whole.

• Chapters on environmental components, human activities, and urban areas emphasize interaction within and among social, economic, and environmental elements.

• Presentation of data by province and territory, where appropriate, complements the presentation by ecozone in Part II.

Part IV — Canada in the global context

• These chapters examine how individual and collective actions have implications at the ecosphere scale.

• The focus is on three key issues that are important to Canadians and all global inhabitants.

• Each chapter emphasizes Canada in a global setting and attempts to assess the sustainability of human activity and the environment.

Part V — Towards environmental sustainability

• Similar to the 1991 report, a concluding chapter summarizes the book's findings in relation to the goal of sustainability.

4) Enhanced credibility

Credibility of such a report depends on the involvement of many experts. Although more federal organizations had been involved with the 1991 report than with the 1986 edition, there was justifiable criticism from some provincial authorities and nongovernmental agencies regarding their limited involvement. As a result, the participation of such partners in the preparation of the 1996 report was broadened considerably.

Two key initiatives were developed specifically for the 1996 report. First, a State of the Environment National Network was established to increase the involvement of federal, provincial, and territorial agencies. The national network comprised a single contact within each of 14 federal and 12 provincial/territorial government departments. The main task of the representatives was to orchestrate their agency's contributions in the form of expertise, data, information, advice, and reviews for the whole report. This enabled the project to draw upon existing government committees and mechanisms and to tap into their constituencies, such as industry associations, federal/provincial committees, other provincial departments, provincial roundtables, and Aboriginal groups.

Second, each chapter of the report was completed under the direction of either a formal Chapter Coordinating Committee or a more informal but similar mechanism. Such groups, comprising the key federal, provincial, territorial, and nongovernmental stakeholders, were the driving force behind the preparation of each chapter. This initiative addressed the wish of stakeholders to be involved earlier in the process of preparing the report.

Regardless of the mechanism used for the chapters, each manuscript followed a similar production process. The basic steps of research, manuscript preparation, review, editing, and technical production are outlined below. As can be seen, the foundation of the 1996 SOE report was laid with the final evaluation of the 1991 report.

Critical path for the 1996 report

Evaluation and consultation

• Evaluating the 1991 report and consulting stakeholders were critical first steps in producing a credible exercise as well as a credible document in 1996. Steps included:

- 18 external commissioned reviews;
- assessment by former and current members of PAC;
- interviews with federal participants to obtain their feedback;
- 2 000 responses to a user's survey;
- consultations with every province and territory and selected nongovernmental groups;
- analysis of cost overruns and production problems;
- analysis of sales statistics;
- analysis of media coverage and use;
- unsolicited input from stakeholders; and
- ongoing strategic direction and review by PAC.

• Together with operational considerations, these steps helped determine the table of contents and production process.

Negotiation and production

• Compared with the 8 federal departments involved in the 1991 report, formal commitments to contribute to the 1996 report were received from deputy ministers in 14 federal agencies and 12 provincial and territorial governments.

• In addition, an increased number of nongovernmental organizations from all stakeholder groups were formally involved in the report's preparation.

• Each chapter was prepared under the guidance of a Chapter Coordinating Committee or similar mechanism made up of selected stakeholders and chaired by a State of the Environment Directorate (SOED) coordinator.

Review and revision

• Once drafted, manuscripts were reviewed first by committee members and subsequently by SOED, agencies with representation on the committee, and technical experts. Drafts went through as many iterations as necessary and appropriate within the time frame, including external review by experts not otherwise associated with the preparation of the chapter. The involvement of over 70 external reviewers added immensely to the report's credibility.

Publication and distribution

• A team of environmental writers/editors was hired to ensure consistency and a style appropriate for the target audience. After editing, each Chapter Coordinating Committee or equivalent reviewed its chapter for accuracy. Translation and editing in the other official language followed.

• Marketing strategies and new electronic technologies were investigated and new partnerships forged to allow for the release of the report on the Internet, on CD-ROM, and in an on-demand print format.

SOE reporting and the goal of sustainability

With the benefit of experience with two previous reports and feedback from both participants and users, the organizers of the third national SOE report strived to improve both process and product. Unfortunately, a counterbalancing trend also came into play. Across Canada, resources devoted to SOE reporting were reduced. Throughout provincial, territorial, and federal agencies and nongovernmental groups, once-firm commitment to SOE reporting yielded to hard economic reductions. Databases were not maintained to the same level, data sharing was reduced, and interpretation of data was more difficult to obtain. Thus, the broad, participatory process for this project was severely tested.

However, although budgets and staff resources were reduced, Canadians' expectations of a truly national, comprehensive SOE report remain unchanged. In fact, the need for environmental reporting to contribute to the objective of sustainability has never been greater.

Living in relative affluence among seemingly abundant natural resources, the "average Canadian" has adopted a lifestyle that takes the business of "consuming" very seriously. Every day, he or she uses the equivalent of nearly 24.64 L of gasoline, the most energy per capita of any country; withdraws 360 L of water for household use alone, helping to make Canada the world's second largest user of water per capita; and throws away about 1.8 kg of residential waste, assuring Canada's place among the leading "garbage producers" on a global basis. Indeed, for everyone in the world to live this way, it has been estimated that three planets would be needed to meet the demands for resources. Clearly, this is not sustainable.

Furthermore, as this third national SOE report indicates, we are not yet fully able to assess the sustainability of either our activities or the environment. Given these circumstances, environmental reporting remains an essential element in trying to achieve the goal of sustainability.