Today, 193 countries from around the world will meet in Nagoya, Japan, to begin the Convention on Biological Diversity conference of parties.

The United Nations General Assembly chose the year 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. It did so to raise understanding, to evaluate government actions, and to chart a new way forward.

The loss of biodiversity is a crisis of global proportions. There are now more than 3,000 critically endangered species around the world, and one third of all assessed species are at risk, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Almost every country on the planet pledged “to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss� by 2010. Unfortunately, this goal was not met by any country, according to the United Nations. A renewed effort is unequivocally needed.

In Ontario, there is no law that specifically requires that government monitor the province’s biodiversity, let alone conserve it.

In our 2009 Special Report, the ECO recommended that the Government of Ontario establish a statutory responsibility for monitoring and reporting on the state of the province’s biodiversity.  The Ontario government has taken no action on this recommendation, informing the ECO that “a statutory requirement is not necessary at this time.�

The ECO recommended our 2009/2010 Annual Report that the province develop a new and reconceived biodiversity strategy.  Ontario’s 2005 biodiversity strategy quietly expired this year.

For more information on what the ECO has said in the past about biodiversity, please visit our website.