In 2005 the Ontario government developed Ontario’s first Biodiversity Strategy. To guide its implementation it then established an Ontario Biodiversity Council, with members from government, industry, academia, Indigenous organizations, and conservation groups.
The Council issues a report every five years on how biodiversity is faring in the province. It held a Summit at Trent University, May 21-22, coinciding with the release of its 2025 report.
To help assess progress, the Council added 15 targets to the Strategy in 2011, based on global biodiversity targets adopted by Canada and other Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010.
The Council reported fairly good results in 2015 and 2020: full achievement of, or substantial progress towards, roughly half the targets. But in 2025 it found limited progress towards any of the targets. Wetland and forest loss continue, especially in southern Ontario. Nearly 80 per cent of Ontarians know what biodiversity means, but volunteer efforts have decreased, with only 25 per cent willing to participate.
Progress on species conservation and protected areas has stalled. As of January 2024, 268 species were listed under Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, an increase of 25 species since the Council’s 2020 report. The global protected area target was increased to 30 per cent in 2022, but Ontario remains at 11 per cent.
Resource overconsumption and waste generation are major threats to biodiversity. The Council reported substantial progress in reducing this threat in 2015 and 2020, but downgraded this to little progress in 2025. It observed that the ecological footprint of Ontario residents far exceeds sustainable levels, and current patterns mean that a 2030 target to reduce per-capita resource consumption and waste generation to within Ontario’s biocapacity limits will not likely be met.
For climate change, the Council reported in 2015 and 2020 that a provincial action plan was in place and its target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels had been achieved. In 2025, however, it found that “the effects of climate change are increasingly impacting the natural environment,” and lowered its rating to “little progress”.
Summit attendees did not have to go far to witness increasing impacts of climate change. The March 2025 Ontario Ice Storm, which left many communities without power for over a week, also left many shattered cedar trees blocking the beautiful trails on the Trent University campus. Summit organizers scrambled with chain saws to clear trails for scheduled trail outings, but two days of steady rain forced their cancellation.
On the brighter side, the Summit showcased Trent University’s leadership in Indigenous Studies. Dan Longboat, a 1973 Trent graduate, described five “Rs” for interactions with Nature: Respect, Relationship, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Restoration. He spoke of “Two-eyed Seeing” – one eye focused on Indigenous knowledge and the other on Western knowledge.
Scientist Chris Furgal, who followed Longboat, said Two-eyed Seeing works best with intentional and planned interactions, when powerful Indigenous oral traditions are combined with a Western science penchant for quantification and statistical analysis.
Deborah McGregor then spoke on “Decolonizing Conservation,” noting that traditional ecological knowledge is community-based, Indigenous languages are linked to the land, and that Indigenous peoples are already pretty good at incorporating other knowledge systems (they have to). McGregor said that the 22 per cent of Earth’s land mass where Indigenous people are caretakers contains 80 per cent of Earth’s biodiversity.
Sessions were held on incorporating nature into the economy, reflecting an Ontario Biodiversity Strategy target that “By 2030, biodiversity considerations are integrated into the public and private sectors including through budgeting, funding, investments and financial disclosure.” Some attendees saw this as “financialization of nature,” and warned of potential conflict with another target: “By 2030, biodiversity conservation programs and actions are inclusive, equitable and reflect Indigenous knowledge and diverse perspectives.”
The Ontario Biodiversity Council updates an impressive list of biodiversity indicators, including regular surveys of Awareness of Biodiversity and its Importance to Human Health. An encouraging trend is the huge jump in public awareness of the impact of biodiversity on climate regulation, from just over 10 per cent in 2020 to over 30 per cent in 2024. We rely upon Mother Earth to maintain a living climate, including her water cycles.
Speakers at a well-attended session on Rights of Nature urged us to rethink sustainable development – often shown as three intersecting circles balancing economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection. A better model, more attuned to Indigenous wisdom, shows Nature as encompassing people and all life – all our kin. Economic systems in turn, are social constructs, wholly dependent on people and on Nature.
A speaker in the Rights of Nature session described the difference between legal rights and intrinsic rights – fundamental rights that exist independently of laws or societal constructs. In a Rights of Nature model, children, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, wetlands, etc. – entities that are unable to represent themselves in a court of law — are nonetheless entitled to some legal protection of their intrinsic rights.
Inevitably, Ontario’s controversial Bill 5 was a discussion topic at the Summit. An observation during the Rights of Nature session was that Bill 5 would widen the gulf between intrinsic rights and legal rights.
Fortunately, many of us are working to prevent Bill 5 from putting the economy above people and nature, enshrining the worst features of our current system.
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