Question Period Note: Efforts to Achieve Canada's National and International (AICHI) Biodiversity Targets

Efforts to Achieve Canada's National and International (AICHI) Biodiversity Targets

• Through Budget 2018, the Government of Canada announced the single-largest investment in nature conservation in Canadian history: $1.35 billion over five years. This investment is helping accelerate the Government’s efforts to achieve its 2020 goals and targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
• With partners—provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous communities and associations, philanthropic foundations, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations—the Government is continuing its efforts to deliver a true nature legacy for Canada and to reach all 19 of Canada’s biodiversity goals and targets.
• For example, together, we agreed to take action to protect Canada’s natural spaces and wildlife to create an important legacy for generations to come, which includes conserving at least 17 percent of Canada’s land and fresh water and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas by 2020.
• Canada has surpassed its marine conservation target to conserve 10 percent of Canada’s marine and coastal areas. Canada has also made significant progress on the terrestrial conservation target—protecting an area equivalent to Great Britain, since 2017, with the help of the new Canada Nature Fund.
• The Government of Canada is also making progress on species at risk, an important issue for all Canadians.

In 2010, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), including Canada, adopted the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity. The Strategic Plan is a flexible framework of aspirational goals and targets (often referred to as the “Aichi biodiversity targets”) to be achieved at the global level.

One of the global targets, Aichi target 11, focuses explicitly on area-based conservation. Target 11 states that “By 2020, at least 17 per cent of global terrestrial and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape.”

Parties to the CBD were also urged to develop aspirational national biodiversity targets that are relevant domestically, using the Strategic Plan and its global targets as a guide.

In February 2015, the 2020 Biodiversity Goals and Targets for Canada were announced. These were developed collaboratively by federal, provincial and territorial governments, with input from Indigenous organizations and others. They consist of 4 goals and 19 targets covering a range of issues including wetland conservation, invasive alien species, Indigenous traditional knowledge, sustainable forestry, agriculture and fisheries, and getting Canadians out into nature.

Canadian target 1, which is aligned with Aichi target 11, focuses explicitly on area-based conservation. It states that “By 2020, at least 17 percent of terrestrial areas and inland water, and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas, are conserved through networks of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.”

The Honourable Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister Responsible for Parks Canada, is co-leading a process, known as the Pathway to Canada Target 1, focused explicitly on terrestrial areas and inland waters. The Pathway to Canada Target 1 initiative was launched by Ministers responsible for parks, protected areas and biodiversity conservation at their meeting of February 22, 2017.

The Government of Canada has also committed to conserving 5 percent of marine and coastal areas by 2017 and 10 percent by 2020, as outlined in the mandate letter of the Ministers of the Environment and Climate Change, and the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. The latter is leading this effort.

As of August 2019, approximately 13.8 percent of Canada’s coastal areas are conserved. On the terrestrial side, 11.8 percent of terrestrial areas and inland waters are conserved.

Question Period notes as provided by the Department to the Minister’s Office