How Can I Participate?

Conserving nature is not a new idea in British Columbia. We have a strong history of speaking out and providing ideas on how best to preserve our natural wealth.  Over the past few decades, British Columbians in all regions have participated in many initiatives aimed at sustaining ecological values, including:

• strategic land use planning processes,
• the Protected Areas Strategy,
• stream rehabilitation and riparian area management,
• recovery strategies for species at risk,
• management strategies for old growth forests,
• private land conservation through land acquisition and covenants; and,
• community-based stewardship and restoration activities.

These are all proof that there are a vast array of ideas on how and where to go about biodiversity conservation. And these efforts have helped BC to retain a great deal more of its natural diversity than most other jurisdictions around the world. Despite these efforts, we're continuing to lose more species and see more degraded ecosystems. We're facing growing pressures on biodiversity from climate change, and from tremendous growth in population and economic activity - almost all of it in the valley bottoms and coastal areas that are richest in biodiversity.

The bottom line is that we can't continue to rely solely on the existing array of local and regional initiatives to conserve individual elements of biodiversity such as species at risk. A more coordinated approach that recognizes the connections between the elements of biodiversity and defines priorities for long term conservation will be required to maintain our ecosystems and natural diversity. The future well being of British Columbia is at stake, environmentally, but also economically and socially because healthy biodiversity produces a wide range of "ecosystem services" that provide important benefits to people, businesses, and communities.

A "Science-Based" Approach

A great deal of effort has gone into assembling the best scientific information available on the current state of biodiversity, and we are soliciting expert opinion on how we can move forward more strategically to address the conservation priorities that matter most. When we go out to talk to the people that live and work on the lands and waters of British Columbia to get the benefit of their knowledge and experience, we want everyone to have access to the best scientific information. That way, we can all be on the same page about the concerns that need to be addressed. We can then focus our collective efforts on developing the best possible solutions - getting the most positive biodiversity conservation results in ways that also consider our other community, regional and province-wide needs.

British Columbia's Biodiversity Action Plan: Draft for Discussion

In early 2008, Biodiversity BC will release its Draft Action Plan with proposals for actions to address threats to biodiversity based on the scientific data and expert advice. We're going to want to hear from you then on which actions will be most important as we move forward.

Conversation on Biodiversity

The consultation for the Biodiversity BC Action Plan will occur in three distinct phases:

Consultation Objectives

• Build awareness and understanding of the major findings in the report on the Status of Biodiversity in BC, the urgency and benefits of taking action, the draft Action Plan proposals, and opportunities for input/dialogue.
• Early engagement with opinion leaders of industries, ENGOs, and all levels of government (including First Nations) with an interest in biodiversity conservation, the status of biodiversity in B.C., draft Action Plan proposals and how they can participate in implementation of the finished Action Plan.
• Provide opportunities to respond to the draft Action Plan proposals and give suggestions for actions and implementation strategies.
• Ensure that listening is a major component of the conversation on biodiversity.
• Acknowledge current activities of industry, governments and ENGOs that support biodiversity conservation.
• Seek support and commitment from everyone with an interest in biodiversity conservation to enable effective implementation of the Action Plan.

Conversation with the Public

Many economic sectors in BC have a huge stake in conserving our province's wealth of biodiversity. For example, the forest and agriculture sectors rely on natural processes such as pollination, plant regeneration, soil formation, clean air and water, and more.

We plan to hold a number of public forums in locations throughout the province to present the proposed solutions in our action plan, and listen to the ideas and recommendations from communities and organizations who share an interest in sustaining British Columbia's ecological well being. At the same time, we will conduct an internet forum where everyone interested can participate in the public discussion of how to build the best plan possible. We plan to collect the ideas presented to our web forum and community forums and report back part way through the process and at the end of the consultation to let you know what the ideas and trends of advice were, and explain how we will be using this input to help finalize the plan so we can begin implementation.

We will have a schedule of public consultation dates and locations closer to the release of the draft Biodiversity Action Plan in early 2008, which will be posted under this tab on our website.

By late in 2008, we expect to be able to move forward with a shared understanding and design for how BC's Biodiversity Strategy can be implemented with the active collaboration and partnership of all interested parties.

You can bookmark this page to get involved in the consultation process once the discussion paper has been released.

We look forward to hearing from you!