Issue Analysis: Biodiversity in Canada- Liam Richardson

Canada is a resource rich country, and home to a large range of fauna and flora. This means Canada is very bio diverse. What exactly is biodiversity though? The free dictionary refers to it as “The variability among living organisms on the earth, including the variability within and between species and within and between ecosystems.’’ With the ever-expanding cities of Canada, the issue lies in the loss of this biodiversity. As Canada is known for it’s environment, the loss of it would be devastating.

While certain plants and animals are localized to a particular ecosystem or region, this issue is nation wide. The loss of a species can have a domino effect and end up harming or killing another, potentially even destroying an ecosystem. While the loss of biodiversity is in fact a global crisis, biodiversity in Canada is national. Biodiversity boosts ecological productivity, in which all species have a role. According to Anuh Shah, biodiversity grants us many services for free that would cost an incredible amount to replicate, and it is not guaranteed we could. Some ecological services provided are: protection of water resources, soils formation and protection, nutrient storage and recycling, pollution breakdown and absorption, assistance in climate stability, maintenance of ecosystems, and recovery from natural disasters. Some biological benefits are: food, medicinal and pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, ornamental plants, breeding stocks, future resources, and diversity in genes. A large gene pool also helps protect from extinction. Some further social benefits are research and educational monitoring, recreation and tourism, and cultural values. The amount of money needed to fund all of these resources is the biodiversity in Canada is lost, would be astronomical. There would be major tax increases to fund this, as well as the potential for privatization of water resources, as the water would need treatment. This would then become a major issue in political platforms, controlling debates in elections.

Pharmaceutical	US$ 640 bn. (2006)	25-50% derived from genetic resources
Biotechnology	US$ 70 bn. (2006) from public companies alone	Many products derived from genetic resources (enzymes, microorganisms)
Agricultural seeds	US$ 30 bn. (2006)	All derived from genetic resources
Personal care, Botanical and food & Beverage industries	US$ 22 bn. (2006) for herbal supplements US$ 12 bn. (2006) for personal care US$ 31 bn. (2006) for food products	Some products derived from genetic resources. represents ‘natural’ component of the market.

Table: Example of market sectors dependent on genetic resources, according to Teebs

In 1992, Canada signed onto the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity. After this, Canada worked with it’s federal, provincial, and territorial governments to work together on meeting the standards of the UN convention. By 1994 they had created the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. There were five goals of this strategy, the first being conservation and sustainable use. This meant to conserve biodiversity and resources in Canada. Next was Ecological management, described as improving our understanding of ecosystems and increasing our resource management capability. Third was education and awareness to promote an understanding of the need to conserve biodiversity and using resources in a sustainable manner. Then is incentives and legislation, to maintain or develop incentives and legislation that support the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of biological resources. Last is international cooperation. This is to work with other countries to conserve biodiversity, use biological resources in a sustainable manner and share equitably the benefits that arise from the utilization of genetic resources.

In conclusion, we can see that Canada recognizes the issue of declining biodiversity in all its aspects, and has been creating ways to battle this loss. 
Liam Richardson