The Metro Vancouver Sustainability Framework approved by the Board in May, 2008 demonstrates how sustainability principles are integrated into the corporation’s operations, plans, and collaborative governance and outreach programs.  The Sustainability Framework identifies the development of a regional Ecological Health Plan as a priority action for 2009. 

The Ecological Health Plan (EHP) will identify Metro Vancouver’s role, both corporately and regionally, in protecting and enhancing the region’s natural assets, and will identify what key actions the other levels of government and agencies could implement to help protect and enhance regional ecological health.

Ecological Health is a measure of the integrity, health and vitality of the region's natural assets and the essential services they provide for us. Ecological health illustrates the interdependence between the health of our natural assets and our health, well-being and quality of life. The basic tenet of the ecological health plan is that conserving natural asset and ecosystem integrity is vital because viable ecosystems are the basic life support system for human communities through the crucial ecosystem services they provide.

Natural assets are the lands, waters, and features - the biological components - that are essential for functioning ecosystems. Ecosystems services are the essential benefits that natural assets provide to us for free - clean air, clean water, good soil for growing food, biodiversity, spaces for recreation and rejuvenation, and resources for the economy. The EHP focuses on means to protect, enhance, and restore the region's natural assets and the crucial ecosystem services they provide.

The EHP will: 

• refine existing mapping to show both protected and unprotected ecologically important lands; 
• inform a robust acquisition strategy;
• identify fiscal, regulatory, and advocacy tools to support natural asset protection;
• confirm regionally significant ecological corridors that provide key paths for habitat connectivity and enhance the resilience of the region’s natural areas;
• seek to provide an economic framework for valuing the ecological services that our natural areas provide;
• provide a set of regional indicators and performance measures so that ecological health can be assessed and monitored over time. 

Progress to date:

• November 2008, staff held two scoping workshops to identify issues, and to review the policies and practices in the region
• In 2009, a draft framework including goals and strategies was developed
• Internal and external review
• Stakeholder workshop in June to review the draft Framework