6. Conclusions and Recommendations

This project demonstrates the utility of applying wetland standards, guidelines and objectives to EA decisions. The ecological benchmarks approach would also benefit project assessments involving grassland, forest, freshwater, marine or Arctic ecosystems. A number of the sources of ecological benchmarks referenced in this report apply to a broad range of ecosystems, such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or the Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory: Conservation Manual.

The challenge is to provide ecological benchmarks to EA practitioners across Canada in a format that facilitates access and integration into project decisions. This is becoming more urgent in light of limited resources for preparing and reviewing individual assessments, steadily increasing legal and policy requirements for environmental protection, and the continually evolving scientific and practical knowledge base for natural resources management.

This research illustrates how current database and Internet technologies provide an opportunity to gather and organize benchmarks in a way that is most meaningful to EA decisions, and allow quick identification of benchmarks applicable to a proposed project. The project proposes a Web-based central database of Canada's ecological standards, guidelines and objectives, similar to Europe's STAR database (European Environment Agency 1999). The database could organize ecological benchmarks by criteria that would link them to project assessments, such as geographic region, ecological function (e.g. habitat, water quality, hydrology), issue (e.g. climate change, biological diversity, invasive species), or sector (e.g. agriculture, forestry, aquaculture). The project also outlines the option of combining this database with a user interface to systematically lead the EA practitioner through questions that would identify benchmarks that are relevant to the project proposal at hand.

Although ecological benchmarks can provide effective guidance to significance decisions, this project shows that government experts and specialists are required to interpret the implications of many of the benchmarks to the determination of significance, and in applying benchmarks to particular project situations.

The research is offered as a promising approach that must now be reviewed and discussed by EA practitioners across the country. It is recommended that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and Environment Canada consider the following next steps:

1. Organize a workshop of regional EA practitioners to review the results of this research project and to:
   • Determine the practical applicability of the candidate ecological benchmarks to project assessments;
   • Identify additional analyses or interpretation required to improve the consistency and defensibility of ecological benchmarks to EA decision making, and to ensure due diligence in applying CEAA;
   • Advise on additional sources of ecological benchmarks at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, within the body of traditional ecological knowledge, and in the scientific literature for critical physical, chemical and biological thresholds beyond which wetland functions are suppressed;
   • Consider whether the ecological benchmarks product should be designed as a resource for experts/specialists within Environment Canada to use in advising EA decisions or reviewing reports, or as a resource for broad distribution to all EA practitioners;
   • Recommend the best format for transferring ecological benchmark information to practitioners to optimize direct application of benchmarks to EA issues; and
   • Discuss a process to measure the value of the ecological benchmarks product to improving the practice and results of EA.
2. Consider developing a pilot project that focuses on ecological benchmarks for wetlands (contingent on the results of the workshop). Evaluate the success of the application on wetland decisions in EA as a basis for proceeding with benchmark products focusing on grassland, forest, freshwater, marine or Arctic ecosystems.