1. Joan Eamer, Ecosystem Status and Trends Report Secretariat (Environment Canada) CARMA 6 Dec 4 2009 Taiga Cordillera Photo: D. Downing CARMA & the Ecosystem Status and Trends Report for Canada (ESTR)

2. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 2 Context Measuring Progress Towards the United Nations Biodiversity Target “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth” Photo: Environment Canada. D. Mulders

3. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 3 Canada’s Biodiversity Outcomes Framework

4. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 4 Purpose of ESTR Photo. A. Gaston  Measure progress towards the UN 2010 biodiversity target;  Inform national biodiversity agenda, and particularly expansion of conservation thinking to include ecosystem approaches;  Identify strengths & weaknesses of current ecosystem monitoring  Provide a legacy of accessible, integrated, ecosystem information from federal, provincial, territorial, academic sources

5. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 5 A Federal/Provincial/Territorial Initiative Photo:Victory Adventure Travel  2006 decision to proceed, Canadian Councils of Resource Ministers (CCRM)  2007 funded and started  Federal/Provincial/Territorial Steering Committee  Secretariat (Environment Canada)  Many authors, contributors, reviewers  2008-09 research and writing  September 2010 – everything will be done  Now  Synthesizing results and extracting key findings  Still completing/reviewing many of the technical ‘building block’ reports

6. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 6 Ecological Classification for ESTR  Ecological units follow the National Ecological Classification System (NECS) with some changes  3 Arctic ecozones combined  Updated boundaries from ground-truthing  26 Ecozones Plus  15 terrestrial units  9 marine units  Great Lakes  Urban

7. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 7 Products Photo: Jean Goddard 26 ecozone Plus technical reports ~30 thematic reports & synthesized data sets Highlights report Summary for Decision- makers Key Findings Evidence for Key Findings 26 ecozone- level reports Northern caribou report 5 5 Canada’s international reporting (Arctic Council, CBD)

8. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 8 Key finding themes Photo: EnvironmentCanada Ecosystem processes Habitat and wildlife Biome trends Human/ ecosystem interactions Examples of where CARMA is relevant Changes in green-up dates & biomass Parasites and wildlife disease changes Herd population trends Landscape fragmentation Disruption of migration corridors Changes in the tundra biome Stewardship and conservation measures Climate change impacts on caribou Ecosystem services: cultural, economic, importance of caribou

9. Canadian Councils of Resource MinistersEcosystem Status and Trends Report 9 CARMA and Ecosystem Status and Trends Reporting Photo: Environment Canada, A. Mills  Focus is on data – current status and recent trends – not projected impacts  There is a shortage of trend data for ecosystem reporting  What data exist are often hard to find and not synthesized  Good, effective ecosystem assessment needs good population numbers but it also needs data on stressors, drivers, ecosystem linkages  Both inventory and synthesis are needed to tell the story