CAROLINIAN CANADA’S
BIG PICTURE REPORT CARD
Discussion Paper
Click here to access the Big Picture Report Card Discussion Paper
This Discussion Paper launches our project to develop a landscape-level "Big Picture" monitoring tool to track and target conservation efforts by thousands of diverse people, groups and sectors in Canada's deep south.
You are invited to provide feedback as we shape this tool to measure our collective progress in greening the future of Carolinian Canada.
The Carolinian Canada network of over 2,500 groups and individuals save, steward and seed healthy ecosystems. Together, we advance a collaborative conservation strategy for the region called the Big Picture. Our conservation targets include a significant portion of Canada's rare species and habitats.
If you care for nature, your opinion counts. Get involved by commenting, contributing or collecting data. Use this tool to showcase your local efforts and stories relating to biodiversity and healthier ecosystems.
Click here to fill out the Partner Survey and get started.
BE PART OF THE BIG PICTURE
Watch for these milestones through our EcoNews.
Phase 1 - Launch, Discussion Document & Partner Survey
Phase 2 - Baseline Report Card & interactive website
Phase 3 – First Trends Report Card
Click here to access the Big Picture Report Card Discussion Paper
HOW WILL YOU BENEFIT FROM THE BIG PICTURE REPORT CARD?
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Conservation Action Plan Partners The report card will be a tool to share your stories and highlight achievements |
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First Nations, Planners and Municipalities The Big Picture Report Card will demonstrate how your jurisdiction is managing for climate change, and maintaining the green infrastructure needed for the health and wellbeing of your communities. |
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Agencies and Organizations You will be collaboratively tracking the health of ecosystems and quality of life in southern Ontario with a network of partner groups with shared interests and mandates. |
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Landowner Leaders and Grow Wild Volunteers The report card will be a way to see how individuals fit into the Big Picture, where your citizen science goes, and how your contribution is making a difference. |
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Caring Citizens and Media The Big Picture Report Card will serve as an important tool to show the links between healthy ecosystems and healthy communities, and to gauge how well we are doing locally and regionally. |
COUNT YOURSELF IN - GROW WILD IN THE BIG PICTURE
Join the thousands who are participating in Grow Wild actions to help wildlife, rare species and healthy landscapes in Carolinian Canada. Let’s green the future together. Pledge to help nature by committing to a Habitat Action. If you already Grow Wild, tell us your story to count yourself in or inspire others.
Click here to Grow Wild with Carolinian Canada today.
Background
BIG PICTURE VISION - Connecting habitat for healthy landscapes
Green, healthy landscapes are essential to our quality of life and economic prosperity. Natural areas connected one to another in a "natural heritage system" are critical to maintaining the quality of our water and air and wildlife habitat, and for adapting to climate change.
In 2000, Carolinian Canada’s "Big Picture" analysis identified core habitats and connections in Canada’s most biologically diverse ecological region, the Carolinian Zone of southern Ontario.
All the work of Carolinian Canada’s extensive network of groups and concerned citizens contributes to the Big Picture vision some way. The Big Picture continues to inform and complement natural heritage planning by municipalities, conservation authorities, and provincial and federal departments.
We are working to update the Big Picture with new information, and find ways to monitor our progress in achieving the vision.
BIG PICTURE QUESTIONS
Are we realizing the Big Picture vision? Are southern Ontario residents living in a healthier landscape of thriving ecosystems, clean air, clean water, and prosperous human communities, than we were in the past? Or are things moving in the opposite direction? Are we making gains in some areas while losing ground in others? Where do we need to make changes to be most effective?
These are the questions Carolinian Canada’s "Big Picture Report Card" will aim to answer. It will help measure the effectiveness of policies and programs in rebuilding and maintaining viable ecosystems. It will track stewardship and restoration successes of hundreds of groups and organisations across the landscape. And it will be a gauge of community engagement in our rich natural heritage and its conservation.
The Report Card will monitor trends zone-wide as well as at finer scales, such as by municipalities.
It will be a living document, updated at regular intervals. And it will be highly accessible, web-based, easy to understand, and interactive.
SOUND SCIENCE AND RELIABLE DATA
Carolinian Canada’s Science Advisory Committee, made up of experts from a broad range of sectors (academic researchers, various levels of government, NGOs, consultants) recommend the following broad categories for monitoring by the Big Picture Report Card:
1. Physical Landscape (land cover trends; air, soil and water quality)
2. Ecosystems and Biodiversity (ecological functions, habitat health, species diversity)
3. Protection, Restoration and Stewardship (protected areas, restoration and stewardship, action plan implementation, monitoring)
4. Policy and Planning (environmental laws, regulations, zoning, incentives, funding)
5. Public Awareness and Engagement (general ecological knowledge, school curricula, events, media coverage, levels of financial support, human health and wellbeing)
Click here to fill out the Partner Survey and get started.
Click here to access the Big Picture Report Card Discussion Paper
This project is made possible thanks to the generous the support of:
