Since 2010, protected areas advocates have focused on the United Nations target of protecting at least 17 percent of our lands and inland waters, and 10 percent of our marine areas by 2020. Among our efforts, Ontario Nature, along with eight partner organizations, promoted the Protected Places Declaration to demonstrate widespread public support for achieving the target. Over 8,100 individuals and 154 organizations endorsed the Declaration, results that we will formally submit to provincial and federal political leaders.
But now that 2020 has come and gone, we need to consider what comes next.
The parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity have not yet formally replaced the 2020 target, but there is growing international support for a commitment to protect 25 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030. Canada is among the more than 50 countries advocating for these new targets.
Between now and 2025, there will be a provincial election – likely in June 2022. So now is the time to secure protected areas commitments from Ontario’s leading political parties, and to build and demonstrate widespread public support for their achievement.
Political commitments should include first and foremost a pledge to meet the protected areas targets in Ontario, and to do so in the spirit and practice of reconciliation and with the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas are among the most promising options available, and all parties should commit to supporting their establishment where Indigenous communities express interest.
Beyond political will, meeting the targets requires, of course, a serious financial commitment which so far has been absent in Ontario. The Auditor General’s November 2020 audit, Conserving the Natural Environment with Protected Areas, uncovered the sorry results of a chronic lack of investment in the provincial protected areas system. Despite the considerable economic benefits of protected areas (e.g., 6,400 full-time jobs, $466 million contribution to provincial GDP), there is no plan to expand the system and insufficient staff to ensure that even the protected areas we do have are managed to effectively protect biodiversity. As the Auditor General pointed out in her press statement, this failure to invest leaves Ontario ill-prepared to face the economic consequences of biodiversity loss:
“Biodiversity loss has been ranked as a top-five risk – by likelihood and impact – to economies over the next decade because of the economic value of the services that the natural environment provides,” Lysyk stated. “Ontario needs an effective protected area network to ensure the positive economic impacts attributed to protected areas continue.”
It’s time to turn the page on protected areas. To give you a sense of the opportunities, we invite you to visit our protected areas StoryMap which features numerous candidate protected areas that we have identified, in partnership with community groups, Indigenous colleagues and industry partners. These sites are just the beginning – tangible examples of the exciting work ahead.
Are there any other nature spots in Ontario that you think need protection? We want to hear from you! Post a photo of public lands that you want to see protected in Ontario on Instagram, use the hashtag #MoreProtectedPlacesON and tag us at @ontarionature.
Let’s explore the opportunities for permanently protecting public lands together!
#MoreProtectedPlacesON
Your support makes all the difference. Please consider making a gift to help permanently protect iconic wild spaces across Ontario.
Now a happy retiree, Anne Bell directed Ontario Nature’s conservation and education programs from 2007 to 2024. She holds a Ph.D. in environmental studies and has more than 30 years of experience working as an environmental educator, researcher and advocate. Anne loves to go birding, camping, swimming, cross-country skiing, and to play hockey with family and friends.
8 Replies to “Protected Areas: Picking Up the Pace Post-2020”
Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy has a project underway to conserve the remaining part of the Heaven’s Gate Trail that is privately owned. (link La Cloche Park to Killarney, habitat for 12 species at risk, used by 5 of the Group of Seven) Check it out at http://www.escarpment.ca
Thank you everyone for supporting protected places in Ontario! We appreciate the work other organizations and individuals like you are doing to protect our communities and natural spaces. We are taking note of this information and compiling a list of other proposed protected areas in the province. Please keep adding your thoughts on this comment section! – ON Melina
Consider developing an organization similar to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust which manages to secure important “wild areas” of NS via donations of land and/or funds from public and private sources.
Stop the unnecessary extension of Oak Park Road in Brantford. This proposal will be detrimental to the Grand River, Brant Conservation Area, and the surrounding Trails. Plus it is planned to dissect and tower over the Oak Hill Forest, Road & Cemetery. There is an alternative route over the river just a short 5 miles away. https://stop-opre-brantford.ca/
The Friends of Wabakimi is active in promoting conservation on the Crown land forests bordering Wabakimi Provincial Park, which are slated for timber harvest. We’re doing what we can to project historic canoe routes and important woodland caribou habitat.
Interested to know if Ontario Nature or other conservation groups have considered this area (heart of the Little North)?
I agree with a scientific methodology for a protected area system. The arbitrary targets of 25 or 30 % are emotional propaganda; not science!. Many of the identified sites are conflicts with special interests groups.
Go back to science and also incorporate the socio-economic impacts
Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy has a project underway to conserve the remaining part of the Heaven’s Gate Trail that is privately owned. (link La Cloche Park to Killarney, habitat for 12 species at risk, used by 5 of the Group of Seven) Check it out at http://www.escarpment.ca
Thank you everyone for supporting protected places in Ontario! We appreciate the work other organizations and individuals like you are doing to protect our communities and natural spaces. We are taking note of this information and compiling a list of other proposed protected areas in the province. Please keep adding your thoughts on this comment section! – ON Melina
Consider developing an organization similar to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust which manages to secure important “wild areas” of NS via donations of land and/or funds from public and private sources.
Stop the unnecessary extension of Oak Park Road in Brantford. This proposal will be detrimental to the Grand River, Brant Conservation Area, and the surrounding Trails. Plus it is planned to dissect and tower over the Oak Hill Forest, Road & Cemetery. There is an alternative route over the river just a short 5 miles away. https://stop-opre-brantford.ca/
The Friends of Wabakimi is active in promoting conservation on the Crown land forests bordering Wabakimi Provincial Park, which are slated for timber harvest. We’re doing what we can to project historic canoe routes and important woodland caribou habitat.
Interested to know if Ontario Nature or other conservation groups have considered this area (heart of the Little North)?
http://www.wabakimi.org
Tell the Ontario government to stop selling protected lands NOW
I agree with a scientific methodology for a protected area system. The arbitrary targets of 25 or 30 % are emotional propaganda; not science!. Many of the identified sites are conflicts with special interests groups.
Go back to science and also incorporate the socio-economic impacts
Thank you for your time and energy for all of us