Support the Declaration to Preserve Ontario’s Ecological Integrity

From the Ontario Headwaters Institute 

The OHI today released a report on WaterScape III and launched a new, on-going WaterScape program. The report on WaterScape III summarizes input from 165 participants at 6 gatherings and features nine strategic recommendations, with three each on Biodiversity, Resilient Landscapes, and Healthy Waters.

The mission of the new, on-going WaterScape Program (no Roman numerals) is to facilitate community discussion on the nine strategic recommendations, which we’ve used as the basis for a Declaration to Preserve Ontario’s Ecological Integrity and which we invite you to support.

The key aspects of the Declaration are shown below. You can see the full Declaration and support it at https://waterscape.ca/declaration/.

Preserve Ontario’s Biodiversity by
Ø Updating both the Ontario Biodiversity Strategy and its action plan Biodiversity: It’s in Our Nature;
Ø Establishing natural heritage targets for all of Ontario; and,
Ø Requiring natural heritage system planning in municipal official plans across Ontario.

Maintain Resilient Landscapes by
Ø Using the watershed as the appropriate scale for planning for all uses across the province;
Ø Re-evaluating the implementation of the government’s housing action plan; and,
Ø Developing a sustainability lens for land use planning and management.

Protect Healthy Waters by
Ø Transitioning Ontario to Integrated Watershed Management (IWM);
Ø Ensuring a strong, on-going role for conservation authorities in watershed management / IWM; and,
Ø Creating Regional Water Boards to identify ways to improve IWM and public engagement.