Indicators of Sustainable Development Their Practical Application

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Indicators of Sustainable Development Their
Practical Application
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Todays Presentation

• What Canada is doing on indicators of sustainable
  development
• Where is this work leading?
• Practical applications
• Sustainable Development Strategies
• the case of indicators for sustainable tourism

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What has Canada been doing?

• Environmental indicators series development
  evolving since 1989 at Environment Canada
• Indicators recognized as a tool to measure
  progress toward sustainable development
• Currently, 11 key issues of national significance
  reported upon in the national indicators series
  in four categories

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The Framework

• Ecological Life-support systems
• Human Health Well-Being
• Natural Resources Sustainability
• Pervasive Influencing Factors

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Ecological Life-Support Systems

• Stratospheric Ozone Depletion
• Climate Change
• Toxic Contaminants in the Environment Persistent
  Organochlorines
• Acid Rain

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Human Health and Well-Being

• Urban Air Quality
• Urban Water Municipal water use and wastewater
  treatment

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Natural Resources Sustainability

• Sustaining Canadas Forests
• Timber Harvesting
• Forest Biodiversity
• Sustaining Marine Resources
• Pacific Herring
• Environmental Sustainability Canadas
  Agricultural Soils

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Pervasive Influencing Factors

• Canadian Passenger Transportation
• Energy Consumption

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SampleUrban Air Quality

• Indicators
• number of days ground level ozone exceeds
  objective
• levels of inhalable airborne particles in
  Canadian cities
• toxic substances in Canadian urban air Benzene

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Website

• Http//www1.ec.gc.ca/ind

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What will Canada be doing?

• Currently embarking on a three year project to
  develop and pilot test a national set of SD
  indicators being led by NRTEE
• Will draw upon input from variety of
  organizations and build upon environmental
  indicator series work

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What will Canada be doing? (Cont)

• Phase 1 Determine approach to measure progress
  toward SD - broad consultations key
• Phase 2 Develop specific indicators
• Phase 3 Test proposed indicators

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What are Indicators - in practical terms?

• indicators are signals of
• upcoming situations or problems
• current issues
• need for action
• results of our actions
• certain data or information become indicators
  when their relevance becomes understood
• red sky at nightsailors delight
• health of canary in the coal mine
• increased smoke from a volcano

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How Indicators can help reduce the risk of
damaging the natural resource base
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Tactics for Risk Reduction

• improve knowledge of likely risks
• establish effective audit and monitoring systems
• provide better information to those potentially
  affected
• formalize accountability and reporting regimes

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Federal Sustainable Development Strategies (SDS)

• Addresses legal, economic, social and
  environmental risks
• A legal requirement
• Supports rigorous performance target setting
• Derives from scan of SD issues relevant to each
  department
• Supports preparation of environmental management
  systems
• Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable
  Development

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Barriers to Success of SDS Implementation

• Senior management support
• Lack of agreement over terminology (what IS
  sustainable development?)
• Lack of SMART targets
• Lack of indicators implementation capacity

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• The Example of Indicators for Sustainable Tourism

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• THE RISK NOT KNOWING HOW MANY TOURISTS ARE TOO
  MANY

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First Question

• What is it we wish to sustain?

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Why Indicators for Sustainable Tourism?

• Tourism sector decision-makers need to know
• the links between tourism and the environment
• the effects of environmental factors on tourism
• the impacts of the industry on the environment
• The objective is to reduce future risks to the
  tourism industry and to destinations

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Useful types of Indicators

• early warning indicators
• indicators of stresses on the system
• measures of current state of industry
• measures of industry impacts
• measures of management effort
• measures of management effect

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• Good indicators are
• Understandable
• Timely and accessible
• Meaningful to real decisions
• Reliable
• Reveal important changes
• Generally accepted

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Indicator Requirements at Different Levels

• national level base indicators
• indicators at level of specific locations
• targeting of hot spots within larger locations
• project level indicators

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The Benefits of Good Indicators

• better decision-making - lowering risk or cost
• identification of emerging issues - allowing
  prevention
• identification of impacts - allowing preventative
  action
• support sustainable development - identifying
  limits and opportunities
• allow for accountability - you cannot take
  responsibility without knowledge

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Classes of Indicator

• Core Indicators
• Composite Indices
• Ecosystem Specific Indicators

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Core Indicator (samples)

• Stress
• Tourist numbers visiting site
  (per annum/peak month)
• Social Impact
• Ratio of tourists to local residents (peak
  period)

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Composite Indices (sample)

• Carrying Capacity
• Composite early warning measure of key factors
  affecting the ability of the site to support
  different levels of tourism

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Prince Edward Island, Canada

• warm water, sandy beach
• heavy swimming use in summer
• national park protects shore zone
• intensive development of park periphery zone
  for tourism
• concern over uncontrolled development /habitat
  stress
• key indicators peak use levels, water supply,
  sewage disposal, habitat stress

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Ecosystem Specific Indicators

• Respond to specific risks found in typical
  tourism destinations of different types
• Supplement the core indicators
• Mountains/Traditional Communities/Cultural
  Sites/Unique Ecological Sites/Coastal Zones

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Coastal Zones (Sample)
Issue Ecological destruction Beach
degradation Fish stocks depletion
Indicators Amount degraded Levels of
erosion Reduction in catch
Measures reduction in key species of beach
eroded Effort needed to catch fish
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Conclusion

• Indicators a tool to help identify and manage
  risks - ongoing commitment required for success
• Indicators enable sectoral (e.g., tourism)
  integration with community and regional planning
  requirements
• Many of the lessons from indicators for
  sustainable tourism can apply to indicators for
  sustainable development