2010 Target

In 2004, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) agreed to a comprehensive framework to, inter alia, facilitate assessment of progress towards the 2010 target to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss; and to provide a flexible framework within which national and regional targets may be set, and indicators identified, where so desired by Parties. Parties will decide on whether to adopt the framework at the next Conference of the Parties scheduled for March 2006.

In September 2004, at a meeting in Whitehorse, Deputy Ministers responsible for Forests, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Wildlife and Endangered Species discussed the issue of developing a strategic biodiversity agenda for Canada. Deputies indicated that the agenda should be outcomes based, built on a shared sense of priorities and relevant to ministers. They also noted that a number of Canadian jurisdictions are developing their own biodiversity plans and strategies and that a national framework would need to add value to those plans and strategies.

Governments in Canada can point to many accomplishments as a result of ten years of implementing the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy (CBS) - from legislation to protect species at risk and new protected areas to sustainable management regimes for our forests, oceans and a national plan to address the growing threat to our ecosystems from invasive alien species.

Biodiversity is not one issue but a complex set of issues that requires action on a multitude of fronts from protection of unique habitats and endangered species to sustainable resource management. Rather than trying to address the breadth of these issues in one plan, Canada has taken an approach that attempts to build biodiversity management into the policies and business plans of key environment and resource management agencies.

Thus, Canada has, in fact, many plans to address biodiversity loss at the national, federal and provincial/territorial levels. They include the National Accord to Protect Species at Risk, species recovery plans, protected areas plans and strategies, the National Forest Strategy, Agricultural Policy Framework, Canada's Oceans Strategy and Action Plan, Invasive Alien Species Strategy and Canada's Stewardship Agenda. Even our plan to implement our Kyoto commitments will have a positive impact on the conservation of biodiversity.

All Canadian resource sectors are also addressing biodiversity to varying degrees. National strategies and policy frameworks have been developed in the forestry, agricultural, fisheries and marine areas which include biodiversity goals, objectives, standards, criteria and indicators. In addition, sustainable resource management plans at the jurisdictional and sub-jurisdictional levels identify specific operational targets and objectives for key sectors.

At the provincial level, jurisdictions are moving to a more flexible, outcomes-based approach; British Columbia's Forest Range and Practices Act is one example. Increasingly, outcomes are also being developed at the jurisdictional and sub-jurisdictional levels within defined geographic, landscape or eco-units. Some municipalities, such as Vancouver, are also incorporating biodiversity plans into their long term vision not only as a means of sustaining natural assets but also as a way to reduce costs related to infrastructure.

What we are lacking, however, is a framework for measuring the impact of these policies and plans on the state of biodiversity in Canada.

Recent findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment indicate that, in spite of the efforts of many countries, biodiversity continues to be lost at an unprecedented rate along with the essential services it provides.

Because many biodiversity outcomes already exist within a wide range of sustainable resource management policies and strategies, the development of a strategic biodiversity agenda for Canada is a question of reframing these to create a crosswalk between a national biodiversity outcomes framework and jurisdictional and sector-based frameworks. This will better enable Canada to demonstrate how jurisdictions, sub-jurisdictions and resource industries are contributing to national biodiversity outcomes. Although "place-based" targets and outcomes may not be visible in a national framework, they would act as important delivery mechanisms for achieving and reporting against both jurisdictional and national outcomes, in particular those related to conserving key biomes and integrated land and resource management.

The CBS, developed jointly with federal, provincial and territorial governments, provides broad strategic direction but stops short of defining measurable outcomes. This makes it difficult to assess progress. Although we can list many achievements under each of the CBS goals, it is difficult to assess the impact of policies and programs on the state of Canada's biodiversity.

Moving forward on a new framework of outcomes and indicators - aimed at preventing the loss of biodiversity and providing Canadians with regular reports on how successful we have been - will better enable reporting on progress on whether we are winning or losing the struggle to halt biodiversity loss in Canada.

Thus, in 2005-2006, we will be focussing our attention on developing a framework that will better enable Canada to link a wide range of conservation and sustainable use initiatives to long-term outcomes.