2008/09 Annual Report - Building Resilience
The 2008/2009 ECO annual report was submitted to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on October 6, 2009.
En français
Key Findings
“The resilience of our ecosystems can be dangerously undermined, but we may not notice it until very late in the game,” notes Gord Miller, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner. For example, the collapse of the Atlantic cod stocks seemed a sudden phenomenon, but in hindsight it appears that managers were not able to see or properly interpret the warning signs. “There’s been no commercial fishing of Atlantic cod since 1992, but the stocks haven’t recovered – there has been some fundamental change in that ecosystem,” Miller observes.
In everyday terms, we think of resilience as a simple concept; as the ability to bounce back from some pressure. Ecologists use the term too, but over the past 40-odd years they have developed a more sophisticated interpretation and a whole field of study, often called “resilience theory”. The Commissioner’s Annual Report, Building Resilience outlines the basics of resilience thinking; it explains why we should pay close attention to this idea, and encourages us to apply it to real life environmental issues.
Resilience: some basics
(see p. 12)
- Systems are linked in innumerable ways
- Change is not always linear or predictable; there are surprises
- Systems naturally experience cycles, including crashes and renewal
- Crashes occur when systems are pushed beyond certain thresholds
- Systems may not recover, once pushed into a new regime
Why does resilience matter:
(see p. 4)
Many of the systems we have relied upon to define our way of life – our forests, the Great Lakes, our soils and our climate – are suffering perturbations of which the ultimate consequences are unknown. We need to build resilient systems that can tolerate change and disturbances without totally collapsing.
Resilience is an underlying theme for many Ontario environmental issues:
- Farm Soils: estimates indicate that over 40 per cent of Ontario croplands are at risk of soil erosion rates exceeding one tonne of soil per tonne of grain corn produced. We can mask the impacts by increasing use of agrochemicals, but there is a risk that dire symptoms or marked declines in crop yields may “suddenly” appear. (see p.61-67)
- Sand and Gravel Extraction: some southern Ontario landscapes, rich in sand and gravel deposits, are pock-marked with pits and quarries, eventually becoming clusters of flooded holes and altered aquifers. Is the Ministry of Natural Resources over-estimating the resilience of such ecosystems? Are they likely to bounce back, or have they been pushed beyond a recovery threshold? (see p. 29-32)
- Lake Simcoe – a system under pressure: Lake Simcoe is a classic case of an ecosystem that has lost much of its resilience. Excessive phosphorus loadings caused the lake’s cold water fisheries to collapse decades ago. How will the government’s new protection plan for Lake Simcoe work to restore resilience to this much-loved watershed? (see p. 25-29)
- Northern Forest Harvests: There are big changes underway in Ontario’s forest industry, including a feverish new interest in harvesting forest fibre for biofuels. What may be the impacts of intensified harvests of tree branches, needles and leaves for conversion to fuels? What are the likely impacts on soil nutrient levels, diversity of soil micro-organisms and the overall resilience of forests? (see p. 50-54)
- Pesticides and Pollinators: Ontario has landmark new legislation banning the cosmetic use of pesticides province-wide. Pesticides are considered one of the main threats to pollinators. How might this new law strengthen ecosystem resilience over time? (see p.68-73)
The Work of the ECO
As an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Gord Miller is the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO). He monitors and reports on compliance by 13 provincial ministries with the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR). Each year the ECO monitors hundreds of environmental decisions posted by ministries on the Environmental Registry. The ECO conducts detailed analyses on a subset of these decisions, and reports to the Legislature and the public through his Annual Report. The ECO also receives applications from members of the public raising specific environmental concerns. In a typical year, the ECO may conduct detailed reviews of 20-40 such applications, which are also summarized in the Annual Report. The ECO handles approximately 2,000 inquiries from the public annually, and reaches an estimated 11,000 people through public presentations.
|
