State of Ontario’s Biodiversity Report 2010

Steve Hounsell, Sustainable Development, Ontario Power Generation - As a member of the Ontario Biodiversity Council, and a member of the reporting sub-committee of Council, I am pleased to be able to provide a few highlights from the State of Ontario’s Biodiversity Report.  This was a major undertaking involving many fine people from a variety of organizations, both government and non-government.  The collaboration of effort was impressive and the results forthcoming from the report are noteworthy and we believe must be shared with Ontarians.

We have in many respects, a bad news, good news story on the state of Ontario’s biodiversity.  This report echoes many of the broader findings and trends that have been recently released in the Global Biodiversity Outlook Report.  Globally pressures on biodiversity are increasing.   Likewise the rates of decline for most groups of species continue.  And that is in spite of global conservation efforts, which suggests that we have failed to achieve the 2010 global target of achieving a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss.

In broad strokes, that same story repeats itself for Ontario. 

The pressures on biodiversity continue to increase, largely driven by a growing population and increasing levels of resource consumption and waste generation.  Ontario’s ecological footprint is higher than the national average while Ontario’s ability to support those demands is lower than the Canadian average.  We are approaching the limits of our biocapacity.  Ontario’s ecological footprint is the fourth highest recorded in the world.   If everyone in the world lived like Ontarians, we would need four planets to sustain us. We have only one. Our demands on biodiversity, particularly in the southern part of province, are exceeding nature's ability to replenish itself. Projections of population growth will further exacerbate that problem.

Specific threats include habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive alien species, pollution and climate change.  The pressures on Ontario’s biodiversity, with the possible exception of climate change, increase from north to south, with the Mixed Woods Plains of southern Ontario, south and east of the Canadian shield, experiencing the greatest pressure.  This region supports the greatest diversity of species in Ontario, but it also supports most of Ontario’s human population and the necessary infrastructure to support that population.   Not surprisingly, it also supports the greatest number of species at risk, many of which are at risk because of incompatible human activity. 
The Great Lakes ecosystem is also suffering and has been transformed, particularly in the lower Great Lakes, by a number of factors including the pervasive presence of invasive alien species, a very significant threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Given the increasing pressures on Ontario's biodiversity it should not be a surprise that the state of biodiversity is worrisome, with problems being greatest in the south and in the lower Great Lakes.  There are no indicators of biodiversity response which are showing consistent improvement.  Some indicators are showing mixed results – improving or stable in some areas, deteriorating in others, not surprising given the vastness of Ontario.  Others show a continued deterioration, such as wetland loss in southern Ontario in spite of a wetland protection policy; shoreline hardening along the lower Great Lakes, contributing to shoreline habitat loss; and fundamental changes to the Great Lakes food chain through the plummeting loss of Diporeia, a small native freshwater shrimp that is at the base of the foodchain, largely caused by the increasing presence of invasive alien species. 

In terms of species response, reptiles have the highest proportion of species of conservation concern, followed by freshwater mussels, dragonflies and damselflies.  In terms of Ontario's birds species, both grassland birds and aerial insectivores are showing precipitous declines province-wide, while forest birds and northern birds overall are either increasing or are stable.

There is however some very positive news that we must now build upon.  Provincial efforts to enhance conservation and sustainable use of renewable resources are showing meaningful improvement.  Overall Ontarians are showing they care and are willing to engage in conservation and sustainable use initiatives.  As importantly, that response not only applies to progressive government efforts, such as the Greenbelt Act, Endangered Species Act, Places to Grow Act, 50 Million tree program, and promises to protect more than 225,000 km2 of the northern boreal, but also to a strong environmental organization (ENGO) community, an engaged and caring rural community and a growing positive response by business and industry to reduce adverse effects and to engage in proactive conservation and sustainable management activities.  Progress against many of the recommendations of Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy is being made by a diverse array of organizations.

Therein lays the hope for those of us on the Ontario Biodiversity Council, and by extension for Ontario and its rich biodiversity.  The pressures are real and growing and Ontario’s biodiversity is paying a heavy price, but we can slow down the rate of loss and we can engage in a restorative and healing effort, but it will take all of us, government, environmental groups (ENGOs), businesses, industry and citizens, all working to reduce our pressures on nature and to engage in its enhanced stewardship. 

It takes little time to destroy habitat, but it does take time to rehabilitate, restore and recover.  The good stewardship work that is proliferating on Ontario’s landscape, will likely reap very positive rewards for biodiversity, but it will take time.  We need to build upon this, expand the effort and collectively work across society to “protect what sustains us”.  Our real point is this: healthy ecosystems, with their natural diversity of life, sustain healthy people and a healthy economy.  Why do we need biodiversity?  We need it for ourselves. Our real work is just beginning.