Karen Kraft Sloan served as a member of parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2004. There, among other duties, she served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment and Chair of the Subcommittee on Environmental Awareness for Sustainability of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
After retiring from politics in 2004, she served as Canada’s Ambassador for the Environment from February 2005 to September 2006. In 2007, Karen founded EcoNexus, a consultancy that helps people achieve their environmental and sustainability aspirations.
Currently, she is serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Pollination Initiative, a Canadian-wide research program examining the growing problem of pollinator decline in agricultural and natural ecosystems.
Throughout her career, Karen Kraft Sloan has remained a passionate advocate for the environment and for the development of sound and effective environmental policy in Canada.
Title: The Science – Policy Nexus: Making Public Policy as if Biodiversity Mattered
Summary:
Observations on the dynamics of the federal environmental policy-making process will be presented and illustrated by case examples. In addition, the broader international biodiversity governance context will be highlighted and challenges to successfully integrate science into policy will be identified along with opportunities for strengthening the science – policy nexus. Recommendations for creating conditions for a more robust evidenced-based policy approach to stemming biodiversity loss will be outlined.
