Degrading Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem services have also been degraded over the past 50 years. Capture fisheries, water supply, waste treatment and detoxification, water purification, and natural hazard protection have all suffered. The spiritual and aesthetic aspects of nature, as well as the regulation of air quality, regional and local climate, and erosion have all been compromised.

Two ecosystem services – freshwater and fisheries capture – are identified as being well beyond levels that can be sustained at current demands, much less future ones. In the case of the fisheries, at least one quarter of important commercial fish stocks are over-harvested. And Canadians are not immune: when the Newfoundland cod fishery collapsed in the early 11000s, tens of thousands of jobs were lost and at least $2 billion was spent on income support and retraining.

Everyone is negatively impacted by degrading ecosystem services, but the burden has been disproportionately placed on the world's poorest people and is sometimes the principal factor causing poverty. Worldwide, approximately 1.7 million people die annually as a result of inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene. Fish, an inexpensive source of protein in developing countries, are increasingly scarce. And, millions of people, especially in drylands, are suffering the consequences of desertification.

2050 and Beyond

The degradation of ecosystem services could grow significantly worse during the first half of this century. More land conversion, mainly in low-income countries and dryland regions, and dramatic growth in demand for food crops and water are expected by 2050.

Pollution, particularly nutrient loading-nitrogen and phosphorus in land and water-is predicted to increase. Nitrogen flows, already too high, may increase by two thirds according to some estimates, accelerating damage to freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystems.

Overexploitation of resources will likely persist and fisheries will likely be especially hard hit. In much of the world, the advent of industrial fishing has already brought on a 90 per cent reduction in commercial fish biomass and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight to this unsustainable harvesting. At the same time, the spread of invasive alien species and disease organisms is predicted to continue, threatening native species and many ecosystem services.

By 2100, climate change may be the dominant factor in biodiversity loss and changes to ecosystem services globally. Both increased incidence of floods and droughts, and rising sea levels are expected as global mean surface temperatures rise 2.0-6.4 °C above pre-industrial levels.

A New Future

There is no quick fix to reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting the world's increasing demands for services. But, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment affirms that many steps can be taken to improve the state of the Earth's ecosystem services. Key steps include:

Changing the economic background to decision-making to ensure that the value of all ecosystem services are taken into account when making decisions;
Improving policy, planning and management to allow for integrated decision-making between institutions, participation from marginalized groups and additional protection for fragile ecosystems;
Creating a new vision for the future through education and fundamental social change, and;
Developing and using environment-friendly technologies to both restore ecosystems and improve industrial efficiency.
The challenge of environmental sustainability requires a new vision of the future. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment offers a roadmap for moving forward that the Government of Canada and Canadian citizens can use to move towards the conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems.

For synthesis reports on the overall assessment, health, biodiversity, wetlands and desertification, as well as a publication for Business and Industry, visit the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment web site.

Protecting and Restoring the Great Lakes

At the heart of North America, the Great Lakes region is an area where 40 million people, including 30 per cent of all Canadians, live, work, and play. Stretching across an expanse of 766 000 km2, the Great Lakes basin is bigger than any of Canada's three Prairie Provinces. The five lakes-Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario – hold one-fifth of the globe's fresh surface water and support over 50 per cent of Canada's manufacturing output. With the health, quality of life, and prosperity of so many people depending on the Great Lakes, they are a resource too precious to lose.

Today there is a growing appreciation of the Great Lakes' value and the need to be responsible environmental stewards. However, this was not always the case and since the beginning of European settlement on the Great Lakes, this critical life support system has been used as a sink for disposing wastes of every kind.

You're glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed! No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So I'm sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary. They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary. I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie.
Dr. Seuss, The Forax, 1971

During the 1960s, attention turned to the health of the Lakes after it was discovered that eutrophication – the acceleration of a lake's ageing process due to an increase of nutrients – had advanced significantly in Lake Erie. This was the result of both phosphate-based detergent and sewage getting into the lake, and led to the media's description of Erie as a "dead" lake. Problems continued as high mercury levels shut down commercial fishing and in 1969 the oily surface of the Cuyahoga River, which drains into Erie, caught fire in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.

International Co-operation

Pollution protection of the Great Lakes quickly took on a sense of urgency leading Canada and the United States to sign the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) in 1972. For the first time the two countries had agreed to work together to regulate, control, and reduce water pollution in the Great Lakes.

It's important that the Agreement's goals continue to reflect the Great Lakes' environmental needs and, since the original signing, the pact has been updated twice – in 1978 and 1987 – to meet new challenges, such as chemical contamination. In its present form, the Agreement reflects a commitment by each country to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters of the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem. It also now recognizes the important interaction between air, land, water and living organisms, including humans, within the basin.

The overall success of the GLWQA has shown what can happen when two countries co-operate to improve and protect an ecosystem. One of the Agreement's major achievements was the development of the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (GLBTS) in 1997, which aims to eliminate toxic substances generated by human activity from the Great Lakes basin. Based on emissions data from the late 1980s the GLBTS now boasts an 88 per cent reduction of high-level PCB waste in storage in Ontario, as well as 85 per cent of mercury releases and 84 per cent of dioxins and furans.
Fast Facts

The Great Lakes hold 1/5 of the earth's fresh surface water.

Forty million people live in the Great Lakes region.

Canada and the United States first signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972.

Since 1997 the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy has reduced some of the most harmful substances by 84-88 per cent.

Public meetings on the Agreement will take place this fall 2005 in 14 Canadian and U.S. cities.