State of Ontario’s Biodiversity | Area under restoration and stewardship

Indicator

Area under restoration and stewardship

Trend

Data Confidence

Geographic extent

Figure 1. Annual total and average area being restored by all organizations each year (in hectares) under restoration and stewardship in Ontario between 2002–2023 (Source: Ducks Unlimited Canada, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Conservation Ontario, Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Stewardship Program, Ontario Nature, Carolinian Canada Coalition, Watersheds Canada). Notes: Data for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Stewardship Program was only available for the years 2004–2012. Data for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters was only available for the years 2010–2023.

Trend analysis

There is high variability in the number of hectares under restoration and stewardship between years. In part, this is likely due to the inconsistent availability of data since tracking began in 2002. This means that assessing trends should be done with caution.

A simple linear regression of the annual average number of hectares under restoration and stewardship revealed a positive slope which suggests an increasing trend over time . The analysis produced a statistically significant r² value of 0.3735 which suggests a relationship between the average area under restoration and stewardship (in hectares) and time (2002 to 2023) (see Figure 2). In other words, there has been an increase in the average number of hectares under restoration and stewardship in Ontario since 2002, based on the information provided by the tracked organizations.

Figure 2. Total annual average area under restoration and stewardship in hectares over years with regression line.

The degree of increase in annual average hectares over time is shown in Figure 3 as the average number of hectares in 5-year intervals. It can be seen that the average hectares for the 5-year time period of 2002 to 2006 is 721.46 while the average annual hectares for 2019 to 2023 is 2124.67. This is an increase of 1403.21 hectares (which is equivalent to approximately 2600 football fields), which is nearly a 3-fold increase.

Figure 3. Average hectares per 5-year interval.

Identification of priority restoration areas

A priority restoration area can be described as an ecosystem or area that has been degraded or destroyed and its restoration would provide significant enhancement of local or regional biodiversity and/or increase the supply of necessary ecosystem services. The identification of a priority area is most often linked to a specific outcome for a site, project, program or region which are most often defined by a landowner or organization.

Several conservation organizations in Ontario have undertaken restoration area prioritization exercises to support the long-term effectiveness of their on-the-ground efforts. Of the organizations included in this indicator, most (6 out of 7) have performed some type of prioritization exercise to help guide decision-making related to their conservation work. The one organization that had not prioritized areas for restoration indicated that they generally work with partners who have established priorities.

While the prioritization criteria provided were varied, there was overlap and all could be placed in one of two general categories:

improvements for species and ecosystems, and
improvements for people.

The criteria were synthesized into twelve overarching categories.

Table 1. Twelve synthesize criteria categories and the number of organizations (out of a possible 7) that indicated a criteria that fell within the overarching category.

Several tools have been developed to support the identification of priority restoration areas within Ontario. One of these tools is showcased as feature stories: priority restoration identification tool developed by Dr. Richard Feldman (Ministry of Natural Resources).

Note: This indicator replaces ‘Observed Change in Land Area With Stewardship Activities’ as the stewardship activities identified within this indicator are now scoped as restoration activities.

Status

There has been an increase in the area under restoration and stewardship in Ontario through the time period of 2002 and 2023. The degree of this increase is low to moderate.
There has been annual variability over time in the amount of land being restored and stewarded in Ontario. This variation is likely influenced by many different factors including (e.g.,funding, resources, priorities, information, incentives, etc.).
Most organizations surveyed for this indicator (6 out of 7) have undertaken a restoration area prioritization exercise or have embedded priorities within their overarching goals and objectives.
Information and tools to support planning and prioritization of restoration areas in Ontario are being developed.
Assessment of priority areas under restoration will be done for 2030.

Previous versions:

Ontarians place huge demands on the province’s natural resources which often have serious consequences for biodiversity as well as for our quality of life and economic prosperity. Similar to elsewhere in the world, biodiversity loss continues to be documented in Ontario. This includes an increase in the number of species being classified as vulnerable or critically imperiled and the continued decline in natural cover such as forests and wetlands, particularly in southern Ontario. To combat the biodiversity loss crisis, there is a growing call to rapidly scale up stewardship activities and the restoration of lost and degraded habitats and ecosystem services.

Ecosystem restoration is defined as ‘the process of halting and reversing degradation, resulting in improved ecosystem services and recovered biodiversity; it encompasses a wide continuum of practices, depending on local conditions and societal choice (UNEP 2021).”

When done well, ecosystem restoration supports:

the conservation of biodiversity,
improvements in human health and well-being,
food and water security,
climate change mitigation and adaptation, and
job creation, and economic prosperity.

Most of the land in southern Ontario, where ecosystem loss and degradation is highest, is in private ownership. Accordingly, restoration and stewardship activities in Ontario are increasingly coordinated by non-profit conservation organizations, in partnership with private landowners, and undertaken with limited financial support from provincial, federal, and international governments.

A wide variety of stewardship and restoration activities occur in Ontario. Examples include removing disturbances, habitat creation, reintroducing native plant, fish or wildlife species, planting trees, establishing buffers next to wetlands and riparian areas, managing invasive species, building fences to keep livestock away from waterways, and restoring degraded wetland and aquatic hydrology using water control structures, among others.

This indicator presents an index of the amount of land area that is being actively restored and stewarded in Ontario based on data maintained by 6 conservation organizations (Nature Conservancy of Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ontario Nature, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Carolinian Canada Coalition, Watersheds Canada), and various public bodies (the 36 conservation authorities in Ontario, Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ontario Power Generation). As such, this indicator does not reflect all restoration and stewardship activities occurring across Ontario. Recognizing that restoration and stewardship activities are often done in partnership, efforts have been taken to minimize double counting of efforts. Activities are included for the years 2002 to 2023.

This indicator replaces ‘Observed Change in Land Area with Stewardship Activities’. Based on the broad description of restoration activities provided by international bodies, it was determined that activities which fell under the previous indicator aligned with restoration.

Data from 2002 to 2018 is shown as the annual number of hectares and is limited to the data available through the previous indicator. Data from 2019 onward includes additional organizations and may include additional activities such as those occurring in aquatic ecosystems. To avoid misleading increases, the annual area from the six historically included organizations was kept separate from data coming from the newly added organizations by using a stacked bar graph. The average annual area was included as an overlaying line graph and a simple linear regression analysis was done using the annual average data to assess whether the number of hectares under restoration and stewardship has increased over time.

A one time survey related to the prioritization of areas for restoration was sent to each organizations contributing to this indicator (Nature Conservancy of Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ontario Nature, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, Carolinian Canada Coalition, Watersheds Canada), and various public bodies (the 36 conservation authorities in Ontario, Ontario Power Generation).

The survey included the following questions:

Has your organization undertaken an exercise to identify priority restoration areas?
Do you use specific criteria to prioritize these sites?

Survey results were compiled and synthesized.

Related Theme(s)

Conservation Response

Web Links

Conservation Ontario https://conservationontario.ca/

Ducks Unlimited Canada https://ducks.ca

Nature Conservancy of Canada https://natureconservancy.ca/en/

Ontario Biodiversity Council. 2020 State of Ontario’s Biodiversity sobr.ca

Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters https://ofahfoundation.org

Ontario Power Generation

https://opg.com/about-us/our-commitments/protecting-the-environment/

Glossary

Degradation refers to a persistent reduction in the capacity to provide ecosystem services. Degraded land includes natural ecosystems which have included a loss of ecosystem functions and services and transformed ecosystems (CBD, 2024).

Degraded ecosystem is an ecosystem where, due to any process or activity, the viability of ecosystem functions and processes, and hence biodiversity, have been removed or lessened (Dunster and Dunster, 1996)

Resources

CBD (2024, March 26). The Biodiversity Plan – For Life on Earth. Target 2. http:// Target 2 (cbd.int)

IUCN, 2022. IUCN Restoration Intervention Typology for Terrestrial Ecosystems. https:// iucn_restoration_intervention_typology.pdf

United Nations Environment Programme (2020). The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: Strategy. https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/31813.

Last Updated: May 20, 2025

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