CSPC 2018

Organized by: WWF-Canada, Elizabeth Hendriks

What’s the biggest threat to Canada’s freshwater?  It’s a myth. The one that tells us our water wealth will last forever. The one that says: water, that’s someone else’s problem. The truth is, there is nothing Canadians should take more personally than the health of our waters. Engaged communities ask questions, they seek information, they pay attention to changes in their local, and they hold decision-makers accountable.

For decades, Canada has failed to collect real-information on a regional or national scale about the health of our freshwater ecosystems. The good news is that Canada’s commitment to freshwater stewardship, conservation, and science-based decision-making is now a national priority. There is a growing awareness that safeguarding our freshwater ecosystems is critical to the future of our economies, our communities and our quality of life. In other words, the people empowered to implement freshwater solutions are now asking for them.   The window is wide open.
 
Trusted water data underpins the goal of abundant, clean freshwater. Communities, governments, citizens and NGOs require the information to make decisions that protect Canada’s fresh water supply. Yet, water data deficiencies are widespread. One of the key findings of World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) 2017 Watershed Report was data deficiencies on key water health metrics.
 
To address this challenge, RBC, WWF-Canada, Gordon Foundation and local community groups have been forging conservation partnerships with river communities, closing knowledge gaps around freshwater health, building capacity behind local water stewards and with the groundswell of regional commitment we are poised to help drive the most important era in Canada’s history for freshwater conservation.  Here is how: By creating a local network of users at a regional scale we are creating a true tool for evidence-based decision-making. Here’s how:

We are pairing the security of blockchain technology (decentralized ledger system) and the nimble nature of open data.  We’re making comprehensive analysis accessible and available to everyone—watershed advocates, scientists, governments, and everyday citizens—and keeping it updated through Atlantic Datastream, an online data sharing platform.  But we’re not counting on the data to speak for itself, we’re distilling and communicating our findings powerfully through WWF’s Watershed Reports.
 
Together, we’ll measure our progress in the adoption of smarter, evidence-based water conservation policies across the country. But the real measure of success will be Canada’s ability to bend the curve on our freshwater health on a national scale.