(JUNE 21, 2024)—Final week, the Authorities of Canada introduced its 2030 Nature Technique to implement the nation’s formidable objectives beneath the Kunming-Montréal World Biodiversity Framework agreed to on the fifteenth United Nations Biodiversity Convention of the Events (COP 15) in November 2022. The 2030 Nature Technique contains 23 targets masking ecosystem restoration and the conservation of 30% of Canada’s land and marine areas.
As well as, the Authorities of Canada tabled a invoice—the Nature Accountability Act—that may enshrine in federal laws the nation’s dedication to guard nature for future generations. Particularly, the proposed regulation guards in opposition to future backsliding, by establishing a requirement that every one future Canadian governments should desk in Parliament a nationwide nature technique (beginning with Canada’s 2030 Nature Technique), and report on its implementation, guaranteeing accountability and transparency. The subsequent technique and assessment are anticipated in 2030 and should be knowledgeable by an advisory committee with knowledgeable scientific and Indigenous enter.
Canada hosts billions of breeding birds of a whole bunch of species—waterfowl, shorebirds, warblers, and sparrows–that migrate south to change into key parts of ecological communities in winter within the U.S., Mexico, and throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. “As a nation, Canada has an overriding duty to make sure the way forward for fowl populations throughout the hemisphere,” mentioned Jeff Wells, Audubon’s VP of Boreal Conservation. “And Canada has stepped as much as the problem and change into a world chief by adopting the World Biodiversity Framework objective of defending 30% of land and water by 2030. This pledge has been backed by essentially the most important conservation investments by any federal authorities in Canadian historical past,”
Audubon welcomes Canada’s framework for accountability and its willingness to guide by instance, recognizing that the mix of this Nature Accountability Act and the 2030 Nature Technique function a world mannequin to ship a coordinated strategy to deal with biodiversity loss. The 2030 Nature Technique and Nature Accountability Act follows Canada’s 2023 funding of $200 million within the newly created World Biodiversity Framework Fund. Each the proposed regulation and the framework of accountability it establishes are additional concrete demonstrations of Canada’s sturdy dedication to reversing biodiversity loss by 2050, each at dwelling and internationally.
Audubon is worked up to collaborate with Indigenous governments and organizations; provincial and territorial governments; and Canada’s federal authorities to construct on Canada’s current dedication of $800 million to help as much as 4 large-scale, Indigenous-led conservation tasks inside Canada. Solely by way of in depth help for Indigenous-led conservation and extra formidable management from Canada’s provincial and territorial governments can the nation ship on the 2030 Nationwide Technique, which requires doubling Canada’s present complete cumulative space of conservation in simply six years*.
The worldwide significance of those actions taken by the federal government of Canada can’t be overstated. Defending huge landscapes and marine areas in Canada impacts biodiversity on a grand scale and will be exemplified by the unimaginable variety of migratory birds that breed there. As world leaders, diplomats, and conservationists head to the subsequent Biodiversity Convention of the Events (COP 16) in Colombia this fall, they won’t be alone. Billions of birds will probably be making their lengthy migratory journeys from breeding grounds throughout Canada to winter houses in South America to hitch them.
*Observe: Per the 2030 Nationwide Technique, Canada has conserved or protected almost 14% (1,368,065 sq. kilometers) of its land, an space bigger than the nation of Peru. Additional, Canada has conserved or protected almost 15% of marine areas (842,828 sq. kilometers), an space virtually the scale of Pakistan.
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The Nationwide Audubon Society protects birds and the locations they want, right this moment and tomorrow. Audubon works all through the Americas utilizing science, advocacy, training, and on-the-ground conservation. State applications, nature facilities, chapters, and companions give Audubon an unparalleled wingspan that reaches thousands and thousands of individuals every year to tell, encourage, and unite various communities in conservation motion. A nonprofit conservation group since 1905, Audubon believes in a world through which folks and wildlife thrive.
Media Contact: Rebecca Sentner, rebecca.sentner@audubon.org