Whales and seals and kelp – oh, my! Today, people all across the globe are celebrating the wonders of our oceans and all of the magnificent flora and fauna that marine ecosystems support. Over a decade ago, the UN General Assembly proclaimed May 22nd International Day for Biological Diversity, and this year the celebration is focused on increasing awareness and understanding of marine biodiversity.

Last week, the province of British Columbia quietly posted the results of an 8-year feasibility study for the creation of a national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen. The federal-provincial study cost millions of tax payer dollars, and even though it was completed back in December 2010, it wasn’t until last week that the study was officially made public.

No matter how you frame it, we’re all connected to our natural surroundings – this has always been the case and always will be. We can’t afford to look at our ecosystems as stand-alone entities – they’re all intricately connected components of a global system. What affects one component of this global system will undoubtedly affect another.

The second anniversary of the historic Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement (CBFA) is rapidly approaching, and here at CPAWS we continue to be excited by the progress that we’ve made and the great potential for conservation outcomes from the agreement. CPAWS has been part of the CBFA from its very beginning, and our staff continue to be leaders in the on-going work to implement the agreement in all regions of the country.

Not since the jailing of the KI 6, have I seen Ontario get it so wrong. Last week, Ontario announced it had reached an “initial agreement” with an American coal and iron mining giant called Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. to mine chromite (used to make stainless steel) in the Ring of Fire. The two parties separately announced the results of their behind closed doors business deal. Most of the media coverage that followed focused on the selection of Sudbury for the smelter, which was portrayed as Ontario’s prize. What didn’t get nearly enough attention was how much was this going to cost us. Very little attention, for example, was paid to the subsidy that Cliffs secured on power rates for the smelter which could be upwards of $100 million per year (Cliffs should be thanking us for subsidizing their operations, by the way). The commitment to use taxpayers’ money to build a $600 million private, all-weather, north-south road was also largely buried.