While government policies and programs can provide a strong framework for biodiversity conservation, the participation of all sectors and individuals is required to achieve success. Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy (OBS) identifies the need for broad societal consensus and participation to protect the variety of life on Earth and that protecting what sustains us “is a challenge not just for some of us, but for all of us” (OBS 2005). When the Strategy was renewed in 2011, this concept was captured in the first goal:

Goal 1: Mainstream biodiversity by incorporating biodiversity considerations into decision-making across the province, in different sectors and in our homes, workplaces and schools.

To help measure progress on this goal, the renewed OBS 2011 also includes the target that all sectors initiate the development of implementation plans in support of OBS by 2015 and implement those plans by 2020.

This indicator reports on implementation plans that have been developed in support of the OBS. A related indicator on Biodiversity and Business assesses the efforts Ontario’s business sectors have made to incorporate biodiversity considerations into their business operations.

A list of implementation plans that support the OBS was created through canvassing members of the Ontario Biodiversity Council (Tables 1 and 2). This includes implementation plans specifically created to help achieve the goals, objectives, outcomes and actions of the OBS 2011. It also includes plans that were not specifically created around the OBS 2011, but support the conservation of Ontario’s biodiversity consistent with the OBS.

Undoubtedly, there are additional sectoral implementation plans and strategies supportive of the OBS that have not been identified here. Readers are encouraged to identify relevant plans so that they can be incorporated.

Web links:

The Ontario Biodiversity Council www.ontariobiodiversitycouncil.ca

The Stewardship Network of Ontario Stewardship Strategy 2013 http://stewardshipnetwork.ca/files/2012/03/SNO-Stewardship-Strategy-May-2013.pdf

Biodiversity: It’s in our Nature – Ontario Government Plan to Conserve Biodiversity 2012-2020 http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/c8f28fef

Royal Ontario Museum http://www.rom.on.ca/nature

Ontario Power Generation – Biodiversity http://www.opg.com/about/environment/Pages/environment.aspx

Halton Region – A Biodiversity Strategy for the Halton Regional Forests http://www.halton.ca/cms/One.aspx?portalId=8310&pageId=9819

References:

Ontario Biodiversity Council. 2011. Ontario’s biodiversity strategy, 2011: renewing our commitment to protecting what sustains us. Ontario Biodiversity Council, Peterborough, ON.

Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy (OBS). 2005. Ontario’s biodiversity strategy, 2005: protecting what sustains us. Queen’s Printer for Ontario, Peterborough, ON [Available at: http://snobeanobc.com/OBC2015/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/OBS_2005.pdf].