April 25, 2019, MONTREAL – At the global Nature Champions Summit organized by Canada this week in Montreal, CPAWS announced a pledge to double its investment in public land and ocean conservation in Canada over the next decade to $100 million, and to triple its supporter base to at least half a million individual Nature Champions to support ambitious public land and ocean protection goals in Canada.
“As we call on governments to set and deliver more ambitious goals, it’s important that we commit to raising our ambition too,” said Alison Ronson, CPAWS’ Interim National Executive Director. “This week conservation leaders from around the world have emphasized the need to think big. CPAWS is here to say we are “all in” to help make this happen, working with communities, Indigenous peoples, and other partners across Canada.”
CPAWS is a long-time champion of ambitious conservation goals. In 2005, CPAWS became the first national organization in the world to adopt a vision of protecting half of our public land and ocean, based on evidence that this was needed to tackle nature’s steep decline, which is being driven primarily by habitat loss and climate change. Since then a global “Nature Needs Half” movement has developed in support of this goal.
Canadians are ready for conservation leadership. A new peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Facets several weeks ago showed that 93 percent of Canadians think protected areas are necessary to conserve our country’s wildlife and natural beauty. On average, Canadians think that 43 to 51 percent of Canada’s and the world’s land and ocean area should be protected.
Scientists writing in the journal “Conservation Biology” recently highlighted Canada’s opportunity to be a conservation “superpower” because of the huge proportion of the world’s wilderness, freshwater, ocean and biological carbon within our borders.
“As negotiations get started on the next decade’s global biodiversity goals and targets, Canada has a great opportunity and responsibility to lead,” said Sabine Jessen, CPAWS’ National Oceans Program Director. “We encourage Canada to champion a goal of protecting and restoring half the earth as a core element of a new “Global Deal for Nature”. A milestone target of protecting 30 percent of the planet by 2030 would be a reasonable next step.”
How to implement these ambitious conservation targets has been a key topic of conversation at the Nature Champions Summit this week. Innovative finance solutions, Indigenous-led conservation and better integration of climate change and conservation actions have all been identified as mechanisms to scale-up action.
“CPAWS is committed to bringing our expertise, capacity and the collective passion of our supporters to work in communities and with partners across the country,” said Ronson. “We are committed to ensuring we can pass on a healthy natural legacy to future generations.”
For interviews:
Alison Ronson
Interim National Executive Director, CPAWS
aronson@localhost | Office 613-569-7226 ext. 235
Sabine Jessen
National Director, Ocean Program, CPAWS
sjessen@localhost | Cell 604-657-2813
About CPAWS
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is Canada’s only nationwide charity dedicated solely to the protection of our public land, ocean and freshwater, and ensuring our parks and protected areas are managed to protect nature. In the past 56 years, we have played a leading role in protecting over half a million square kilometres – an area bigger than the entire Yukon Territory! Our vision is to protect at least half of Canada’s public land and water in a framework of reconciliation – for the benefit of both wildlife and humans.