Recommendations for Budget 2005
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Biodiversity Conservation Data Network

Summary
Recommendation: Establish a national network of federal, provincial and non-government agencies and organizations that collectively constitute the Canadian Biodiversity Conservation Data Centre — an accessible, coordinated, distributed, electronic and spatial database on the species, habitats and ecological systems of conservation concern across Canada — based on the vision that “you can manage and conserve what you can measure and locate”.

Investment
$15 million over five years, to be distributed as:

• $5 million to upgrade, standardize and support the seven existing provincial and regional Conservation Data Centres (CDCs)
• $3 million seed money for the initial Yukon and eventual Nunavut and Northwest Territories CDCs
• $3 million for the development of “traditional use” methods to expand data assembly to serve the interests of First Nations
• $2 million in support of the Canadian National Vegetation Classification System; and
• $2 million to support citizen-based collection and monitoring of species and spaces at risk in order to update and validate existing data in the system

Benefits for Canadians

• establishes an accessible, coordinated network of agencies, groups, scientists, professionals and members of the public devoted to systematically collecting, receiving, and disseminating information on the plants and animals, their habitats and ecological systems of conservation concern across Canada
• provides an efficient and effective vehicle for integrating and coordinating existing investments in data assembly and validation, existing commitments to add to and verify data, and existing mandates of various agencies and organizations to apply such data to the conservation and management of species, habitats and places of ecological importance to Canadians
• puts Canada into the forefront of species and spaces conservation by supporting the hemispheric data centre network that all uses the same methodology to gather and exchange information on the threatened elements of biodiversity
• provides a range of landowners and users, including individuals, industries, governments, conservation groups and First Nations, with access to an integrated database containing with reliable, standardized ecological data and records to enable sound community-based decision-making, land use planning, monitoring, and management

Background and Rationale
The 1980s and 1990s saw the evolution of an array of biodiversity data-management systems at different geographic scales, from the international to the local. In Canada, the most comprehensive investments have been into the internationally standardized natural-heritage data centre network that now operates in all Canadian provinces and U.S. states, and in all countries of Central America and most of South America.

In Canada, the critical ingredients in establishing and institutionalizing this network have been:

• strong international commitment, along with solid government and non-government partnerships, to supporting standard software required for standard data assembly and evaluation, and the use new technologies (viz. NatureServe International, Biotics 4, etc.)
• strong commitment by field professionals and skilled naturalists to collect and invest data into the system of data centres — representing third-party data of inestimable value (viz., Nature Canada and the members of their federated provincial affiliates)
• early start-up investments by non-government organizations (viz.,$2,000,000 from Nature Conservancy of Canada and
  others)
• formal partnership agreements between provincial and federal agencies and non-government groups regarding support for and services by such centres

This momentum of the early investments is now being reinforced by a variety of current initiatives:

• the Canadian Information System for the Environment (CISE) task force identified biodiversity data as a priority among the range of environmental information sectors deserving further federal-provincial-NGO development and investment
• in 2003, the federal government’s Interdepartmental Assistant Deputy Minister’s Nature Table, and the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, recommended that the biodiversity information community collectively assemble, validate, share and maintain the country’s biodiversity knowledge
• the roll-up of Canada-wide data from provincial and regional data centres to provide wildlife status overviews, and the critical involvement of data-centre professionals in the data management and recovery planning for COSEWIC “Species At Risk”
• the Canadian National Vegetation Classification System (of habitat or vegetation types and ecological systems) is now recognised as critical to the establishment of cross-jurisdictional assessments of conservation priorities and achievements (viz., NatureServe Canada, Parks Canada, and Canadian Forestry Service partnering in forest and grassland classification, to international data-centre standards)
• the stockpiling of data on both species and “spaces” (i.e., natural areas) by managing agencies (viz., adoption of NatureServe software Biotics4 by Parks Canada)

Major gaps remain:

• tentative, early co-ordination among federal agencies on the support for and involvement of federal mandates by such a network of centre (viz., Species at Risk Act)
• the recognised under-funding of several of the provincial and regional data centres, and the lack of territorial biodiversity conservation data centres two in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories
• the lack of clear federal support, to date, for an accessible, coordinated, distributed, electronic and spatial database on the species, habitats and ecological systems of conservation concern across Canada

Recommendations

• Develop a seconded team of federal-agency professionals in the biodiversity sector to develop the protocols, agreements, standards, etc., in co-operation with provincial agencies and non-government agencies, to advance this program over a five-year period, with the goal of achieving concrete, delivered success on all funding fronts by the end of the five-year period.
• Develop the consultative, consensus-based advisory and partner groups to ensure a solid, enduring network of partners.
• Build on the existing investments and expertise in the existing programs (provincial and regional CDCs; Canadian Vegetation Classification, etc.); and overtly target the kind of co-operative outcome that would be expected by Canadians familiar with the successes (and failures) of confederal programs in Canada.

Alternative and Complementary Policies
Canada has made numerous international and national commitments to conserving its biodiversity and natural heritage (i.e., Biodiversity Convention) and is a member of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, which purpose is to promote, coordinate, design and implement the compilation, linking, standardization, digitization, and global dissemination of the world’s biodiversity information. Achieving these commitments will not be possible without sound knowledge of the biodiversity features of our country, which can only be obtained through a coordinated, standardized approach to data acquisition, verification and dissemination.

It is possible that a federal-only approach could be taken to establish comparable and competitive databases on species, habitats, ecosystems and natural areas, in support of federal mandates to protect endangered species and habitats, and support the conservation of Canada’s biodiversity. However, a federal-only investment of this scale would be prohibitive and duplicative, and antagonistic to the extraordinary successes at the regional and provincial levels at building the partnerships inherent in the present network of biodiversity data centres.

Contact
John Riley
Nature Conservancy of Canada
416-932-3206

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