Timeline

NAHARP is an ongoing program. It builds on previous work that started in 1993 and led to the publication, in February 2000, of the first comprehensive assessment of Canadian agriculture's environmental performance entitled "Environmental Sustainability of Canadian Agriculture: Report of the Agri-Environmental Indicator Project."

Through NAHARP, AAFC expanded its efforts in this area of work, and published in 2005 a second report in what is envisioned to be periodic reporting on the environmental sustainability of Canadian agriculture. This second report entitled "Environmental Sustainability of Canadian Agriculture: Agri-Environmental Indicator Report Series (Report #2)" can be viewed as an intermediate step towards the objective of reporting on a comprehensive set of AEIs for Canada . Most of the indicators from the first report have been updated, extending the temporal coverage to 2001, and in some cases, extending the geographic coverage as well.

Work on agri-environmental indicators involves a process of continuous improvement. Hence, although some indicators have been reported on in the first report of the series, improvements have been made to methodologies and datasets in most cases. Results and trends for these indicators have therefore not only been updated with more recent data, but all calculations were re-done for the entire period covered. It is therefore not appropriate to compare the results provided in the 2005 report with those in the 2000 report. It is better to consider each report of the series to replace the previous one.

The 2005 AEI Report also provides information on new AEIs that are in various stages of development, and expected to be producing results for inclusion in a more comprehensive report, the third in the series, by 2010.