International Year of Biodiversity
The United Nations General Assembly chose the year 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. It did so to raise understanding, to assess what has been done by governments, and to chart a new way forward. The loss of biodiversity is a crisis of global proportions. For example, there are more than 3,000 critically endangered species around the world, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
In October 2010, the world will meet in Nagoya, Japan, to set targets and detail the necessary steps to halt biodiversity loss. Almost every country on the planet pledged “to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss” by 2010. Unfortunately, this goal was not met by any country, according to the United Nations. A renewed effort is unequivocally needed. In Ontario, there is no law that specifically requires that government conserve the province’s biodiversity, let alone monitor it. In our 2009 Special Report, the ECO recommended that,
- the Government of Ontario establish a statutory responsibility for monitoring and reporting on the state of the province’s biodiversity.
The Ontario government has taken no action on this recommendation, informing the ECO that “a statutory requirement is not necessary at this time.”
Back to main article: Species at Risk: Progress and the Path Ahead
| This is an article from the 2009/10 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2010. "International Year of Biodiversity." Redefining Conservation, ECO Annual Report, 2009/10. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 42-3.
