The Ontario Biodiversity Council has endorsed the Ontario Network on Ecosystem Services (ONES) as a working group of the council, with the purpose of advising the council about the role and relevance of ecosystem services in implementing Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy. ONES will be represented on the council by Eric Miller, who is a member of the ONES Steering Committee.

The Ontario Biodiversity Strategy was updated in 2011 with a target that by 2020, programs and policies are in place to maintain and enhance ecosystem services.

The strategy sees the integration of the economic value of biodiversity and ecosystem services into decision-making as an action undertaken by all sectors in order to mainstream biodiversity.

The strategy has an outcome that ecosystem services are maintained and have been restored or enhanced in previously degraded habitats.

The strategy’s targets, actions, and outcomes will fulfill a vision that people value, protect, and enhance biodiversity and the ecosystem services essential for human health and wellbeing.

An upcoming 2013 ONES Strategic Planning Session will detail how ONES can fulfill this new role of serving as an ecosystem services working group of the Ontario Biodiversity Council.