Our planet’s species are being lost at an unprecedented rate, on par with a mass extinction event.   Meriting immediate action on that basis alone, this loss of life also has enormous implications for human well-being.  This crisis directly affects our province of Ontario.

As reported in the Global Outlook 3, the five main human pressures directly driving biodiversity loss – habitat change, overexploitation, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change – are either constant or increasing in intensity.  We are no different than the rest of the planet and Ontario faces each one of these same challenges.

Canada and 192 other countries met in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010.  A key purpose of this summit was to outline the actions in the decade ahead that must be achieved to slow or stop the loss of the Earth’s biodiversity.

Why should all this be relevant for Ontario?  Given our country’s constitutional framework, it will be our provinces and territories that are ultimately responsible for doing anything.

The only Canadian province that attended the biodiversity summit was Quebec.  They have long been out ahead of the other provinces in recognizing their own government’s responsibilities to conserve biodiversity.

A key outcome from Nagoya is a set of 20 targets for the year 2020.  These targets include protecting at least 17% of terrestrial areas, protecting 10% of marine and coastal areas, integrating biodiversity conservation into land-use planning, at least halving the rate of loss of natural habitats, taking action on invasive alien species, and preventing the extinction of known at-risk species.

National and subnational governments – including the Ontario government – will be expected to achieve these targets.  The world will be watching us.

One of the most straight-forward actions for each government such as ours is to come up with a plan to do all of this.

In my last annual report, I recommended that that the Ministry of Natural Resources lead the development of a new and reconceived biodiversity strategy for the Ontario government.

Ontario’s 2005 biodiversity strategy [.pdf] quietly expired this year.  It was a good start for our province.  We must now learn from its lessons and figure out a strategic plan to lead us to 2020.

This week at the Latornell Conservation Symposium, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced that it will renew Ontario’s biodiversity strategy.  That is great news and the first step toward meeting our commitments to the global community.