Canada surpasses $1.5 billion in private land conservation investments

Article content

In the run-up to the United Nations global biodiversity conference next week in Colombia, federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault says the Canadian government together with conservation organizations has reached a milestone investment goal of $1.5 billion to conserve 840,000 hectares of private lands across the country.

Speaking at the Global Congress of the International Land Conservation Network in Beaupré, Quebec, on Friday, Guilbeault said more than 400,000 hectares of ecologically sensitive lands have been conserved in Canada since the Liberals came to power in 2015.

Article content

The $1.5-billion milestone was reached through the government’s Natural Heritage Conservation Program, which creates conservation areas through the acquisition of private land and private interests in land. The federal government has so far invested more than $500 million in that program, which has been matched by over $1 billion in contributions raised by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada and private land trusts.

Since 2007, the Natural Heritage Conservation Program has resulted in the conservation of 840,000 hectares of wetlands, forests, grasslands and shoreline habitats. The NHCP matches financial contributions from corporations, foundations and other levels of governments and private citizens. Many NHCP projects include donations of ecologically sensitive lands through Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program.

As the world faces the duel crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, governments around the world are under pressure to show progress on their commitments to conservation goals. Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be gathering to do just that in Cali, Colombia, for the 16th conference of the parties of the convention, COP16, from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1.

Article content

Article content

Canada signed on to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the COP15 conference on biodiversity, held in Montreal in December 2022, parties adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which set a global conservation goal of conserving at least 30 per cent of the planet’s ecosystems by 2030. Canada committed to protecting 30 per cent of its land and oceans by 2030.

At Friday’s conference, Guilbeault told a panel that when the Liberal government came to power only about one per cent of coastal areas and oceans were protected. “Today we are … beyond 16 per cent for oceanic and coastal preservation and we are at about 15 per cent for the territorial conservation.”

He hinted about an upcoming announcement about a “very, very large” conservation project in the Northwest Territories that will be “to our knowledge, the world’s largest Indigenous conservation project.”

But Guilbeault stressed there is still much to do and called on all levels of government, corporations, foundations and private citizens to help in conservation efforts.

Article content

In his address, Guilbeault took the opportunity to take a shot at Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, saying that populist parties around the world pose a threat to the planet’s survival.

“Obviously, everything that we have done is under threat,” he said. “There is a very wide consensus in the House of Commons on the need to fight climate change by the vast majority of MPs and political parties. And there is a consensus that we need to do more … But there is one notable exception and that exception is leading in the polls right now. The leader of that exception has, as a member of Parliament … voted 400 times against measures to protect nature, to fight pollution and to fight climate change. And so there is a very stark choice that will be in front of Canadians in the coming months.”

This story will be updated.

mlalonde@postmedia.com

Article content

Article content