Ontario Biodiversity Science Forum Workshop 2009 - Key Findings

Comments/Contents	Categories of Feedback
Send Us Your Comments	Ontario's Biodiversity Strategy (OBS)	Integration Between Science and Policy
Download Key Findings	Knowledge Gap vs. Implementation Gap	Engage/ Educate the Public
Summary	Single Species vs. Ecosystem Approach	Who are the Players?
	Social and Economic Influences on Biodiversity Conservation	Next Steps
	Measuring Biodiversity: Benchmarks/Indicators/Monitoring	Plenary Comments

Send Us Your Comments

We encourage participants to review the Key Findings and to send editorial feedback (errors of fact, unclear comments, re-organization suggestions) to Caroline Booth / caroline.booth [at] utoronto.ca

Most importantly, we envisage the workshop as starting the biodiversity dialogue, and would like to honour the workshop intent and process by continuing that dialogue with the biodiversity community and the public at large. Therefore, we ask that you reflect on the workshop and the key findings presented, and send us any new ideas, synthesis, and conclusions about biodiversity issues in Ontario by contacting us. We will post your thoughts/comments on the Workshop Key Findings Comments page and include them as an additional output of the workshop. If you would like your comments to be anonymous, please enter 'anonymous' in the First Name/Last Name fields.

Download the Key Findings

The Key Findings can be found below. If you would prefer a PDF version, they can be downloaded here (PDF 132KB). As well, you can download the Raw Data from Feedback Sessions (PDF 188KB).

Categories of Feedback

The results of the workshop's feedback sessions are presented here under major categories that naturally evolved during the workshop and represented a consensus among participants.

Ontario's Biodiversity Strategy (OBS)

In terms of the strategy itself, participants recommended the following:

• Re-examine whether the goals stated in the OBS are the right ones to have.
• Establish clear guidelines for transparent reporting of progress on the OBS.
• Re-write the OBS so it directly informs policy decisions with targets.
• Legitimize key elements and actions in the OBS through policy. This would provide resources and funding to further help biodiversity science.
• Include social science and economics so that the OBS is interdisciplinary.
• Develop climate change adaptation strategies and integrate them into the OBS.
• Look at flora and invertebrates, as the current OBS is vertebrate-centric.

Knowledge Gap vs. Implementation Gap

Some participants felt that a biodiversity knowledge gap exists in Ontario, while others thought that our knowledge of biodiversity is sufficient and the real problems are issues of knowledge implementation, knowledge mobilization, and capturing local and traditional ecological knowledge.

Knowledge Gap

• Three solutions to address gaps in understanding ecological goods and services are:

1. Identify long-term ecological research sites so that information can be generated to understand/value ecological goods and services.
2. Foster multidisciplinary research involving biophysical, social, and economic scientists.
3. Develop a clear and consistent framework for discussing ecological goods and services, such as the national ecological goods and services framework developed under the national agricultural policy.

• Identify the state of biodiversity in Ontario and whether biodiversity is increasing or decreasing.
• Address lack of biodiversity knowledge in southern Ontario.
• Require knowledge from disturbed vs. natural ecosystems.
• Lack of field/lab courses and interest affects research and knowledge due to loss of identification and classification skills.
• Identify where things are changing and we are relying on outdated information.
• Understand and identify the knowledge gaps and then prioritize them.
• Look at long-term over many spatial scales.
• Make these priorities publicly available.
• There are known unknowns, and unknown unknowns - the latter are the bigger issue and we need to identify them.
• Too much focus on status, not enough on threats to biodiversity.
• Perform a risk analysis - scale and scope of stressors and threats; duration of impacts.
• Modeling may be the best way to judge if we are effectively conserving biodiversity.

Implementation Gap

• We are now facing a gap in the implementation of knowledge, rather than a knowledge gap itself.
  • The precautionary principle needs to be applied.

• The process of bringing science to facilitate human action is slow. We need to speed this process so that new knowledge is integrated into policy before it is expired.

Knowledge Mobilization

• Share information across the policy-science interface, across ministries, and between experts both horizontally as well as top-down.
• Make linkages across disciplines - including social, economic, science, and education.
• There is no agency to lead biodiversity and co-ordinate efforts of the OBS.
  • Integrate data across all stakeholders.
• Make information easily accessible, make better use of the internet.
• Address lack of communication between levels of government to avoid duplication.
• Report on the state of biodiversity, such as with the State of Biodiversity 2010 report.
• Centralize the databases.

Local and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

• Prevent silo-fication of TEK and other forms of knowledge.
• Incorporate local and traditional knowledge in building understanding of biodiversity and in developing hypotheses.
• TEK is especially useful when there is no basic biological information about a species or ecosystem.

Single Species VS Ecosystem Approach

Participants noted that more emphasis should be placed on conserving entire ecosystems, and the benefits gained from ecosystem services, instead of focusing on single species.

• Consider ecosystem diversity and sustainability, not just single species and biodiversity.
• Develop a system to evaluate regional ecosystem services (economic and non-economic), as this system gives a true value of our current status and indicates where we might go from this reference point.
• Understand landscape processes vs. small-scale processes, and the differences between ecosystems.
• Classify ecosystems so they reflect the real ecosystem types - eg. Wetlands are not one of the three ecozones of Ontario.

Social and Economic Influences on Biodiversity Conservation

The general consensus was that social and economic influences on biodiversity conservation were missing from the OBS and white papers presented.

• Focus on the inter-related nature of environmental issues, human impacts, and socio-economic drivers, rather than focusing on piecemeal issues.
• Re-thinking the classic economics approach to land/conservation valuation.
• Develop ways in which biodiversity conservation is compatible with economic growth.

Measuring Biodiversity: Benchmarks/ Indicators/ Monitoring

The importance of developing systematic benchmarks, indicators, and monitoring protocols for measuring and reporting on biodiversity was a re-occurring theme:

• Create tools to evaluate our ecosystem.
• Set measurable goals/ targets / benchmarks created at regional and broader scales.
• Identify at what level biodiversity should be measured.
• Assess cumulative stresses and biodiversity response at multiple scales (ecosystem, species, etc).
• Develop criteria and indicators that change with time and landscape/ecosystem to evaluate biodiversity - adaptive management.
  • Are current indicators and projects going in the direction we need?
  • Need to establish targets - what aspects of biodiversity are we measuring?
  • How much should we restore habitat to ensure viable populations?
• Determine if climate change impacts require new biodiversity indicators.
  • Can we maintain native biodiversity? Resilience? Ecological functions?
• Develop and implement systematic long-term monitoring standards that are reliable, track changes, yield comprehensive data, and are broad-scale (multi-scale, multi-taxonomical), as broad-scale forces are moving through the systems.
  • Provide training/expertise for these monitoring protocols.
• Locate undisturbed reference sites to serve as a reference for restoration protocols.
• Set visible and realistic milestones.

 

Integration Between Science and Policy

Participants noted there is a need for improved integration between biodiversity science and policy:

• Ensure that the precautionary principle flows from science into policy.
• Develop stronger integration of science and policy - increase each group's understanding of the other's to make the system more effective.
• Integrate new information into revised policies - knowledge mobilization.
• Develop policy mechanisms that will allow for the maintenance of dynamic (vs. static) systems, and ensure there is a feedback loop between science and policy.
• Integrate ecological goods and services and biodiversity values into policy including conventional/ prevailing accounting systems, and identify tradeoffs.
• Undertake a comprehensive independent review of all policies in Ontario relevant to biodiversity across all ministries.
• Establish a World Biodiversity Organization (WBO) that can mandate global biodiversity monitoring standards, adaptive management, and policy directives.

Engage/ Educate The Public

The consensus was that not enough was being done in terms of both engaging and educating the public on biodiversity conservation issues in Ontario:

• Sell/ pitch/ communicate the benefits of biodiversity to the public, as public will influences political will. Public doesn't fully understand the issue of climate change or biodiversity. The government has couched it as issues like Kyoto.
• Relate to the public with easy to understand terminology such as 'clean air and water', instead of difficult to understand 'biodiversity' and 'ecosystem services'.
• Develop a social and public driver for biodiversity protection.
• People need to understand how biodiversity affects them personally e.g. Clean air, water, etc. However, there are barriers to accomplishing this:

1. Humans can't grasp ecological time scales - we function with political time scales of 4 yrs or less.
2. Environmental issues aren't tangibly and visibly affecting people yet, therefore people are more interested in other issues: economic collapse, other daily issues.

• Emphasize successes that have been achieved, such as recycling.
• Prioritize education to fill knowledge/expertise gaps.
• Include biodiversity/nature education in school courses, starting in grade school.
• Develop strategies to help the media provide an accurate view of biodiversity and it's importance.
• Create a mechanism to capture local or Traditional Ecological Knowledge related to biodiversity that enables the public to be actively engaged.

 

Who Are The Players?

Participants saw the following as the players in biodiversity conservation in Ontario, while also noting some challenges in identifying players:

• Schools/educators, public, social scientists, aboriginal peoples, policy makers, government, ENGOs, industry, agriculture, lawyers, academia, science (everyone), municipalities, philanthropists, media, citizen science, new Canadians, and more.
• A big challenge is that there is no ownership for biodiversity, as it belongs to everyone.
• Another challenge is that there are different audiences for different issues: eg. Agriculture in southern Ontario vs. forestry for northern Ontario.

Next Steps

The following next steps were identified for different actors in conserving Ontario's biodiversity:

Ontario Biodiversity Science Forum

• Expand the Science Forum to be more interdisciplinary.
• Identify and assess critical biodiversity problems for the 2010 State of Ontario's Biodiversity report.
• Perform a synthesis of all available information that contributes to our understanding of biodiversity and make it accessible to everyone on the Internet.
• Establish a web forum to broadcast information and exchange ideas.
• Establish a conservation research network.

 

Policy Makers

• Consult senior scientists, perhaps with a survey instrument, to review the OBS and provide feedback and suggestions for revisions for the next version.
• Develop an Ontario framework for an evidence-based conservation initiative.
• Connect outside of Ontario:
  • How do other provinces address, identify, and think about their gaps?
  • Make sure to be included in national biodiversity reports.
• Host an information/education institute to integrate:
  • Biodiversity, climate change, monitoring, reporting standards, and community involvement.
• Create biodiversity offsets - a mechanism that balances the competing interests of development/growth and also tackles some of the concerns raised regarding the inability to implement the precautionary principle in protecting biodiversity.

 

White Papers

• Implement recommendations from knowledge gaps white paper from Crins et al.
• Examine critical questions emerging from white papers.

 

Workshop

• Discuss biodiversity science priorities/gaps and focus next steps to accomplish.
• Examine what are the desired biodiversity goals/targets.
• Develop workshops for standardized protocol development (monitoring, reporting, etc.) and related training.

Ontario Biodiversity Council

• Write a discussion paper on new policy approaches to breathe life into the OBS.

Plenary Comments

We have a divergence of:

1. A concise framework being developed for Ontario's biodiversity strategy, versus
2. Those who think the strategy is fundamentally wrong and that we cannot maintain biodiversity within our current framework of consumption/development/growth.

Summary

In summary, workshop participants felt that the OBS should be revised so that it directly informs policy decisions with targets and has clear guidelines for transparent reporting of progress. Some participants felt that that a biodiversity knowledge gap exists in Ontario, while others noted that the real issues were knowledge implementation, knowledge mobilization, and capturing local and traditional ecological knowledge.

The following consensuses were reached: more emphasis should be placed on conserving entire ecosystems, and the benefits gained from ecosystem services instead of focusing on single species; social and economic influences on biodiversity conservation were missing from the OBS and the white papers presented; there is a need to develop systematic benchmarks, indicators, and monitoring protocols for measuring and reporting on biodiversity; there is a need for improved integration between biodiversity science and policy; and not enough is being done in terms of both engaging and educating the public on biodiversity conservation issues in Ontario.

Participants gave valuable suggestions of next steps for Science Forum members and policy makers, such as: establish a web forum to broadcast information and exchange ideas; establish a conservation research network; and consult senior scientists to review the OBS and provide feedback and suggestions for revisions for the next version.