Stakeholder Consultation on Measuring and Managing the Value of Canada’s Nature.

Wednesday, November 22nd. 6-8pm
Canadian Museum of Nature
Rotunda Room
240 McLeod St.
Ottawa, ON K2P 2R1

Food and light refreshments will be served.

Background

The Natural Capital Lab (NCL) and the Canadian Museum of Nature invite you to a consultation session on NCL’s recently developed plan “Natural Capital Accounts: Measuring and Managing the Value of Ontario’s Nature.” This draft report from the NCL introduces the concept of natural capital accounting (NCA) as a promising framework for provincial and federal governments to enhance decision-making by developing more coherent, complete and comparable environmental data.

Authored by a group of natural capital experts coming from across industry, government and research organizations, the report ultimately recommends for NCA to be investigated for potential adoption across governments starting with the Government of Ontario. Piloting natural capital accounts in Ontario can serve as an innovative test case for the rest of the country.

Objectives and Format

In order to ensure the final report is as comprehensive and targeted as possible, we are seeking input from knowledgeable and experienced practitioners. The purpose of this consultation is to solicit input from stakeholders on the draft version of the report. Consultation discussions will inform the development of a final version as well as informing high-level strategic priorities and provincial outreach strategies. The consultation session will include representatives from federal, provincial and municipal departments, civil society, corporate sustainability experts, and practitioners.

Two guiding themes will frame the consultation.

1. How can federal and provincial governments, and, specifically, the Government of Ontario scale it’s existing environmental data and expertise to create standardized and comprehensive natural capital accounts? What steps would be involved in this process?
2. In creating natural capital accounts, how can we ensure there exists sufficient demand from decision-makers for this data? How can stakeholders be engaged in the creation of natural capital accounts to ensure NCAs are institutionalized, influential and useful?

Presentations from business and public sector leaders during the session will provide further context on these two themes.

Next Steps

The NCL intends to publish this report and use it to engage Ontario civil servants and elected officials to advocate for the creation of natural capital accounts in Ontario.

Get Involved

You have been identified as a key stakeholder by a member of the Natural Capital Lab. As such, we would greatly value your participation at the November consultation session.

You can find the draft report for your review in advance of the consultation here. Please note that in order to reduce paper waste, we will not provide paper copies of documents for the meeting.

Please RSVP by November 20th 5:00PM EST to info@naturalcapitallab.com. If you would like to invite a colleague, please email their name and professional affiliation to jpurkis@naturalstep.ca

We thank the Canadian Museum of Nature for kindly supporting this event.