Outcomes and Achievements The process that was followed in the development of the Biodiversity Action Plan involved a variety of community engagement exercises aimed at eliciting key priorities and concerns relating to local biodiversity. The process, which was initiated in the 2nd quarter of 2009, took several months to complete and resulted in the release of the final Biodiversity Action Plan by the end of that year. Greater Sudbury recognises the sizeable and long-term financial commitments to the ecological recovery efforts by Vale and Xstrata Nickel. These commitments not only allow the City’s Regreening Program to step up its activities, but also helps it provide resources for additional educational and community engagement efforts. The Action Plan is written for a general audience and, although comprehensive in scope, is intended to only highlight many of the issues surrounding local biodiversity. The Action Plan stresses the need to build on what has already been accomplished through the municipal Regreening Program and that much land has yet to be limed and tree planted. Some planted areas are now more than 30 years old and the target for these stands of trees is now the development of healthy, diverse, and self-sustaining forest ecosystems. The Action Plan addresses issues relating not only to the actions needed to accomplish this, but also the need to do so in the context of watersheds, climate change and, in some instances, urban environments. The latest version of the Action Plan can be viewed at www.greatersudbury.ca/biodiversity. Importantly, the Action Plan also addresses the social dimension by including sections on education, research and community engagement recognising that local ecological recovery efforts reflect a strong sense of shared responsibility. Since its inception, the city’s Regreening Program has offered multiple opportunities for community participation in liming and tree planting and city personnel have offered tours of the successes of the programme to thousands of people. Regreening efforts have also attracted considerable research from post-secondary educational institutions. Not only must these efforts continue, but these should also expand and adopt a broader and more comprehensive perspective on ecological recovery. The Regreening Program attempts to design its operations to allow for collaborative learning where possible. The forest floor transplant plots established in 2010, for example, were precisely delineated so that they could serve as long term research plots for current and future researchers. Some plots were established on high school grounds to serve as ongoing learning opportunities for students through active multi-year monitoring. As another example, the Regreening Program is collaborating with a local college to develop a local seed bank from which shrub seedlings will be propagated. Attempts have also been made through garden groups to solicit the help of gardeners to propagate specific native plants. These initiatives help to build capacity and local expertise and provide various opportunities to different members of the community to actively participate in the ecological recovery of their city. To expand on community engagement in the form of education, research, collaboration and participation, a Greater Sudbury Biodiversity Partnership was formed in March 2009. The Partnership includes local offices of provincial and federal government agencies and ministries, local naturalists groups, local First Nations communities, professors from Laurentian University, Cambrian College, and Collège Boréal, the four local school boards, two mining companies – Vale and Xstrata Nickel – and local fishing and hunting associations. The formation of this partnership should help in bringing a more coordinated and mutually beneficial approach to biodiversity projects in Greater Sudbury. In 2012 , an e-newsletter is planned to keep the partnership informed of each others’ actions, challenges, opportunities and successes. In time, an electronic ‘plain language’ journal is planned to elaborate on local projects and findings of groups, government agencies, professors and students. Finally, an annual public Biodiversity Forum is being planned starting in 2012 to help disseminate information on local biodiversity and promote the work of local naturalists and college and university students. 25 1 The most important lesson learned through the decades of regreening work in Greater Sudbury is that partnerships with various groups and individuals in the community are critical.
Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity
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