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Right now 196 countries are converging for the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal to negotiate new, international protected areas targets and policies.
Scientists warn that a million species may go extinct over the next few decades, and also that there’s no way to stay within our 1.5 degree climate target unless we sequester vast amounts of carbon while emissions are reduced.
By protecting and then restoring forests, grasslands and wetlands, we can grow our capacity to draw-down vast amounts of atmospheric carbon, while sustaining biodiversity.
Increasing research also shows that being in nature is vital for our health and that protected areas typically support more diverse, resilient and ultimately prosperous regional economies
The Canadian government has committed to protecting 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 of the land and marine areas across the country. Scientists say that 50% by 2030 should be safeguarded to best avert the climate crisis. Currently just 12% of Canada’s land area is protected, and 14% of our oceans have some level of protection.
The federal government has committed some significant funding to expand protected areas - $3.3 billion dollars ($2.3 billion for terrestrial ecosystems, $1 billion for marine ecosystems) over 5 years.
However, most Canadian provinces have not committed to adopting the national protected areas targets and are not providing significant protected areas funding, whether to purchase private lands or to support First Nations’ Indigenous Protected Areas.
Neither the federal government nor the provinces have developed targets for the diversity of ecosystems, resulting in an insufficient prioritization in general to protect ecosystems most contested by industry - which typically are the biologically richest areas with the greatest number of species at risk and that are typically the least represented in the protected areas system (grasslands, productive old-growth forests, deciduous forests, etc.).
Please SPEAK UP to your provincial and federal leaders for strong protected areas commitments to protect the most endangered ecosystems across Canada!
SEND a MESSAGE here:
YOUR MESSAGE WILL BE SENT TO: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, Federal Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu, Federal Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, Federal Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, your Premiere, your Provincial Ministers of Environment, Indigenous Affairs, Energy, Natural Resources, and Forestry, and your own Member of Parliament and Member of Legislative Assembly/Member of Provincial Parliament.
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Canada is globally positioned as one of the most significant countries for nature-based solutions, as we’re the largest country on Earth, with some of the most spectacular and expansive native ecosystems, from temperate rainforests to semi-arid grasslands, from southern deciduous forests to northern conifer forests, from diverse freshwater to marine ecosystems.
Neither the federal government nor the provinces have devised protection targets for the diversity of ecosystems (ecosystem-based targets). This means that the vast majority of new protected areas are being prioritized in areas with the lowest conflicts with industry (often Arctic and alpine tundra, subarctic and subalpine areas with small trees, and bogs and muskegs with low to no timber and agricultural value, and few people) while governments are failing to adequately protect the southern ecosystems (grasslands, deciduous and mixed forests, productive old-growth forests) under most threat from industry and where most people are, with the main concentrations of species and ecosystems at risk.