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1998 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

Main Points

4.1 Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth. It includes all life forms and their associated biological systems. The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is a highly complex issue. Attaining and promoting a better understanding of biodiversity conservation requires a concerted and integrated effort on behalf of all jurisdictions, sectors and interests in Canada.

4.2 Jurisdiction over environmental matters like biodiversity is shared between the federal and provincial governments. Dialogue at relevant ministerial councils is necessary to ensure that biodiversity issues are addressed across Canada. We were told that biodiversity needs to figure more prominently and frequently in the agendas of the fisheries, forestry, agriculture, wildlife, parks and environment ministerial councils.

4.3 Canada was the first industrialized country to ratify the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity . Canada's primary response to the Convention has been the development of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. The Strategy is an important first step in providing a national framework for jurisdictional and sectoral planning and reporting on biodiversity.

4.4 Canada has been slow to implement the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy and deadlines have been missed. Federal implementation of the Strategy is still in its early stages as only two of eight federal biodiversity implementation plans (modules) have been completed to date.

4.5 Completed modules do not contain time frames, resources to be allocated, expected results or performance indicators. An overall federal implementation plan, incorporating these elements, is needed to achieve national goals and to judge Canada's performance on biodiversity against our international commitments.

4.6 Canada's National Report to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity , currently in draft form, recognizes many challenges associated with biodiversity and identifies activities that are occurring in Canada. However, the Report is missing many elements, such as targets and time frames that are needed to operationalize and fully implement the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy.

4.7 Future reporting at the international, federal and provincial levels needs to reflect progress against predetermined measurable targets. This will allow for results-oriented reporting and a rigorous evaluation of achievements to date.

Introduction

4.8 The diverse collection of animals, plants and micro-organisms, from the simplest forms to those more visible to us, such as wild animals and birds, constitutes our "natural world" and contributes to our economic, social and environmental well-being. This living mosaic constitutes biodiversity (Exhibit 4.1) .

4.9 The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is fundamental to survival on the planet. This has been recognized as an international issue, with economic implications that scientists estimate to be in the billions of dollars (Exhibit 4.1) . Meeting the challenge of addressing the adverse impacts on biodiversity over the last century and using biological resources in a sustainable manner now and in the future requires a concerted and integrated effort on behalf of all jurisdictions, sectors and interests in Canada.

4.10 Our audit objective was to assess the progress made by the federal government in implementing the requirements of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. We began by comparing the current status against the expectations laid out by the government in its own planning documents.

4.11 Our assessment of the progress made in both planning and reporting revealed that federal implementation of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy is still in its early stages. As a result, we decided to scale back the scope of the audit and defer further audit work until the implementation of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy is more fully advanced.

4.12 The observations contained in this chapter are based on information gathered from consultation with various government officials, experts from other sectors and document review. Stakeholders who were interviewed identified a number of key issues (Exhibit 4.1) . In order to gain an insight into how departments are implementing the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy, we reviewed the biodiversity action plan of one department, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The results of this work are presented as a case study in the Appendix . Further details on the audit are in About the Audit at the end of the chapter.

Observations

Canada's International Commitment

4.13 In response to the concern over the continued worldwide loss of plant and animal species and habitats, the Convention on Biological Diversity was signed by Canada at the June 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil and ratified in December 1992. Canada was the first industrialized country to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity and commit to its three objectives (Exhibit 4.1) .

4.14 Environment Canada, through its Biodiversity Convention Office (BCO), represents national interests in international forums. The BCO, which regards its role as essentially one of facilitator and catalyst, is responsible for co-ordinating and reporting on Canada's performance against the objectives of the Convention. One of the strengths of the BCO has been its ability to bring diverse interests to the table to encourage consideration of the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by a variety of sectors both within and outside government.

4.15 Article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity indicates that signatories should have developed national strategies, plans or programs and integrated biodiversity into sectoral and cross-sectoral plans, programs and policies. Canada's primary response has been the development of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. The Strategy is an important first step in providing a national framework for jurisdictional and sectoral planning and reporting.

Canada's Biodiversity Strategy
4.16 Following ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity , the BCO co-ordinated a federal-provincial-territorial working group that was tasked with completing the Strategy by November 1994. A key component of the Strategy's development was extensive consultation with stakeholders including industry, the scientific community, conservation groups, academia and Aboriginal organizations. While the completed Strategy was presented to the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) in November 1994, it was not released until November 1995 and did not receive ministerial endorsement from all jurisdictions until April 1996. Federal, provincial and territorial governments are now committed to its five goals (Exhibit 4.2) .

4.17 A report on policies, programs, strategies and actions that are under way to implement the Strategy was to be produced by each jurisdiction, including the federal government, by April 1997. We note that many of these progress reports intended to facilitate implementation of the Strategy have yet to be completed (see paragraphs 4.21 to 4.25).

International reporting needs improvement
4.18 The Biodiversity Convention Office is also responsible for preparing Canada's National Report to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity . This first Report to the UN Secretariat, which was due December 1997, is intended to provide an update on Canada's implementation of Article 6 of the Convention. The BCO indicates that this Report has been prepared using the general guidelines reflected in the Conference of the Parties (COP) decision II/17 (November 1995).

4.19 The BCO has produced a draft report that presents a general assessment of progress and identifies deficiencies that exist in Canada in implementing the Convention. The report identifies gaps in Canada's scientific understanding, Canada's eroding national capacity to address those gaps, the declining number of taxonomists in Canada, and the problems of improving biological inventories and accessing existing biological data. The report also identifies the need for better measures of performance and biodiversity indicators.

4.20 However, the report is missing many elements from the COP Guidelines, outlined in Exhibit 4.3 , that are needed to operationalize and fully implement the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. These elements would enhance the usefulness of national reporting.

Federal Implementation of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy

Key federal entities
4.21 The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is a government-wide responsibility, although the major portion of the workload is carried by a core group of federal entities (Exhibit 4.4) .

The usefulness of biodiversity "modules" is limited
4.22 Individual departments are currently developing a series of biodiversity action plans to implement the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. These plans, or modules, as they are referred to by the Biodiversity Convention Office, are intended to respond to the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy by reporting on existing or planned activities. The eight modules are to describe federal biodiversity initiatives relating to wildlife, agriculture, forestry, protected areas, aquatic systems and cross-cutting issues such as education, ecological management and international co-operation.

4.23 At the time of our audit, only two of eight modules had been completed (agriculture and forestry). We commend the departments of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Natural Resources Canada (Canadian Forest Service) for their leadership. The modules are a valuable tool for focussing and co-ordinating activities in their respective departments and providing information on these activities to the reader. However, the usefulness of the modules is limited as they do not contain time frames, resources to be allocated, expected results or performance indicators.

A federal implementation plan is required
4.24 Co-ordination of the Strategy would be facilitated by an overall federal implementation plan. The Biodiversity Convention Office indicated that it will produce a document summarizing all of the modules once they have been completed. However, if the content and structure of the existing and remaining modules do not incorporate time frames, resources to be allocated, expected results or performance indicators, it is our view that the completed set, regardless of a summary document, will not constitute a sufficient federal implementation plan.

Accountability for program delivery resides with individual departments
4.25 Ultimate responsibility and accountability for ensuring that biodiversity is fully integrated into departmental operations rests with individual departments. In addition to the modules previously discussed, another important instrument to ensure accountability is the sustainable development strategy. The 1995 amendments to the Auditor General Act require ministers to prepare and implement sustainable development strategies with action plans. In our opinion, the strategies and action plans, where relevant, should address the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Without a demonstrated link to sustainable development, there is a risk that biodiversity will not be integrated into federal government operations, which may result in a loss of genetic resources, species or habitats.

Issues of National Concern

4.26 In order for biodiversity to be effectively managed, it is important that the following issues be addressed: adequacy of resources, federal-provincial co-ordination, and results measurement and reporting.

Resources available may be inadequate
4.27 Stakeholders indicated that, in their opinion, the present level of resources dedicated to biodiversity is inadequate for the magnitude of the task at hand. This was manifest on three levels, namely the Biodiversity Convention Office within Environment Canada, resources available to federal and provincial departments to facilitate biodiversity initiatives, and, most important, the support for science pivotal to the understanding of biodiversity. Given the views expressed by stakeholders regarding resources, there is a possibility that Canada will not be able to meet and fulfil the expectations of the Canadian public who, when the meaning of biodiversity is explained to them, understand the importance of assigning a high priority to conserving biodiversity.

Federal-provincial co-ordination needs focus
4.28 Biodiversity must be addressed within the framework of the Constitution Act . While the Act makes no specific mention of the environment in the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments, each level of government has powers that affect it. As a result, jurisdiction over environmental matters like biodiversity is shared. One of the impediments to federal-provincial co-ordination and to developing momentum for implementation of the Strategy appears to be the absence of predictable, planned opportunities for high-level interjurisdictional discussions of biodiversity issues.

4.29 There are varied opinions on the extent of ongoing direction provided by federal and provincial ministers for biodiversity. We were told that biodiversity needs to figure more prominently and frequently in the agendas of the relevant ministerial councils, that is, fisheries, forestry, agriculture, wildlife, parks and environment. Dialogue at this level is necessary to ensure that biodiversity issues are addressed across Canada and that there is accountability for results, a concern expressed by stakeholders during our interviews.

Results measurement and reporting must be more rigorous
4.30 Evaluating biodiversity performance will require that results measurement and reporting constitute an integral component of the biodiversity framework. The Biodiversity Convention Office advised us that establishing such a framework for measuring biodiversity performance, both federally and nationally, will be particularly challenging. The BCO stated that scientific information on biodiversity is not nearly as well advanced as it is for some other environmental issues. For example, only half the species thought to exist in Canada have been named, with only one percent of those having been studied. The BCO also stated that biodiversity indicators are not yet well developed.

4.31 The Biodiversity Convention Office feels that Canada is still a long way from being able to produce a "state of biodiversity" report that would provide a better understanding of the state of biodiversity in Canada. As Exhibit 4.5 demonstrates, the number of species that have been identified as being ``at risk" (vulnerable, threatened, endangered, extirpated, extinct) in Canada is increasing. The BCO has indicated that this increase may be attributable, in part, to our improved ability to identify species ``at risk" and potential threats to species, such as habitat disruption. Seven species have been delisted, indicating improvement in some areas. The BCO expressed concern, however, that Canada's scientific capacity currently does not enable us to analyze the impacts of Canada's biodiversity initiatives on the increasing number of species listed as "at risk".

Conclusion

4.32 While the Convention on Biological Diversity has been in place for six years, progress has been slower than projected and deadlines have been missed.

4.33 A federal implementation plan is a necessary tool to achieve national goals and to judge performance on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity against our international commitments.

4.34 Future reporting at the international, federal and provincial levels needs to reflect progress against predetermined measurable targets. This will allow for results-oriented reporting and a rigorous evaluation of achievements to date.

Environment Canada's response: Environment Canada feels that a good deal of progress has been made in the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Canada, but we acknowledge that more progress is, and will be, needed in the future. The complexity of this issue, both scientifically and jurisdictionally, requires a national commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in Canada.

The scientific knowledge to understand the complex interrelationships among species and to make appropriate decisions needs to be significantly enhanced. Added to the scientific complexity of conserving biodiversity are the interjurisdictional complexities. Notwithstanding these challenges, an important foundation for the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity has been laid in Canada through the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. Not only has it generated broadly based commitment among governments and non-government stakeholders, it has created a planning framework that is being applied to new and existing federal, provincial, industry and community plans and decisions.

Our goal, in concert with our partners, will be to continue efforts to refine results and develop a performance measurement framework and biodiversity indicators that are practical, meaningful, scientifically defensible and compatible with regional, provincial, national and international programs.

Natural Resources Canada's response: The Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development is to be commended for raising important issues regarding what is needed to make the implementation of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy more effective. Some of the criticisms contained in the report are justified. Natural Resources Canada accords a high priority to enhancing scientific knowledge about biodiversity and agrees that there is a need for better interdepartmental and federal-provincial co-ordination of this issue.

The report rightly indicates that the forestry module lacks time frames, resource allocations, performance indicators and, to a large extent, expected results. However, biodiversity pervades most of the business plans of the Canadian Forest Service's 10 science and technology networks. As well, it is a priority in Natural Resources Canada's sustainable development strategy and in the Canadian Forest Service's Strategic Plan. It is expected that, with the performance evaluation frameworks being finalized for each of these networks, the Canadian Forest Service will be able to demonstrate progress toward these and other objectives.

In addition, Canada is reporting on its framework of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, which contains indicators of biodiversity. Improvements are needed in these indicators and their measurement. Even so, progress has been made in this area.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's response: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada shares the Commissioner's commitment to implementing the requirements of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. That is why the Department took leadership as one of the first departments to complete a biodiversity action plan. The action plan, which has been well received by stakeholders, including the agricultural and agri-food sector and environmental groups, outlines the issues surrounding the protection of biodiversity and the actions being taken to address them. Several departmental initiatives respond to items identified by the Commissioner, including scientific research, the development of agri-environmental indicators to measure progress, and the integration of the Department's efforts with the contributions of other departments as they finalize their respective action plans.

The agriculture and agri-food sector has undergone considerable change over the last 25 years and a better understanding is now emerging of how agriculture and biodiversity can be managed for mutual benefit. The agricultural community is working hard to maintain economically viable levels of crop and animal production in a manner that conserves biodiversity resources. For example, important biodiversity gains are being achieved through higher yields on the more productive croplands, which has resulted in less intensive use of marginal agricultural lands and the preservation of non-agricultural lands.

Further biodiversity initiatives under way can be found in two companion documents to the Department's biodiversity action plan, entitled ``Biodiversity Initiatives - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada" and ``Biodiversity Initiatives - Canadian Agriculture Producers".

About the Audit

Objective

To assess the progress made by the federal government in implementing the requirements of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy.

Scope

The audit examined the commitments and obligations of the federal government to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the implementation of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. We examined the progress made by several key federal entities in implementing the Strategy and assessed whether information needed to operationalize and fully implement the Strategy was being reported to the United Nations Secretariat.

We focussed our work on the efforts of Environment Canada (Biodiversity Convention Office) and the federal biodiversity action plans or "planning modules" that have been completed to date. In order to gain insight into how departments are implementing the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy, we reviewed, in detail, the planning module of one department, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Approach

The audit approach consisted of a review of documentation, and interviews with a wide range of stakeholders including federal departmental officials and experts from other sectors. We began by comparing the current status of implementation against the expectations laid out by the government in its own planning documents.

Criteria

We expected that the federal government would have:

  • met its commitments with respect to the Convention on Biological Diversity , that is, the development of the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy;
  • consulted with and solicited input from all principal stakeholders during the development and implementation of the Strategy;
  • developed a federal action plan for implementing the Strategy, which would include time frames, resources to be allocated, expected results and performance indicators;
  • met deadlines for key deliverables; and
  • established measurable targets and time frames for reporting on the results of its efforts in accordance with the requirements and guidelines of the Convention on Biological Diversity .

Audit Team

Principals: Wayne Cluskey and Neil Maxwell
Director: John Affleck

Rob Anderson
Allison Lowe
Geoff Robins
Ginger Stones

For information, please contact Wayne Cluskey or Neil Maxwell.