Rewriting the Value of Nature in Canada

Conservation | Economy

James K. Stewart | September 21, 2026

Canada’s continuing habitat loss and escalating frequency of devastating wildfires, severe floods, and extreme heat events make CPAWS’ crucial work even more important today and in the future.

CPAWS’ strategy in expanding its longstanding conservation and policy efforts to support new research about the crucial economic and financial benefits of natural assets merits highlighting. As a donor for more than a dozen years now and a co-author of several articles published by CPAWS, my testimonial focuses on this important CPAWS’ initiative given Canada’s rapidly escalating environmental policy and climate change challenges.

Mainstream economics has been slow to incorporate nature’s significance for many decades as have most federal and provincial economic and fiscal policies. For far too long, nature has been viewed as “free” to use apart from its supply of direct inputs (e.g., food, fish, lumber) in production. Nature’s provision of clean air and water, climate regulation, and other essential intangible benefits have remained all-but-invisible in conventional theory and markets.

Inadequate visibility of these intangible services supports the lack of understanding of nature’s foundational economic role and too little recognition of its financial and fiscal significance by most provinces. Nationally, in spite of several laudable policy pillars in the federal nature strategy and other announcements, Ottawa’s efforts remain uneven and clearly insufficient.

Fortunately, protecting and investing in nature is attracting belated but growing economic, financial and fiscal recognition, notably among forward-looking financial institutions and municipalities. Their increased efforts are occurring despite the misleading populist narratives claiming a trade-off between the economy and the environment. The reality of the economy’s relationship with the environment is the exact opposite. Nature supports and underpins all economic activity.

Yet, Canada remains far behind leading countries (e.g., the UK, Netherlands) in incorporating nature into economic decision-making. Although Canada is one of 98 countries that compile data using the United Nations standard for countries to measure environmental and economic contributions, Ottawa and the provinces do not use these data as essential inputs and core criteria in setting economic and fiscal policies.

It is the same in Canadian accounting and budgeting for nature. Although some notable progress has been made in selected areas, the federal and provincial governments have been slow to adopt international best practices in putting nature on government balance sheets. Canada’s public sector accounting body has been studying this issue for many years now. Yet, even with the release of the official globally-recognized international standard for recognizing and disclosing natural assets in December 2025, Canada’s public sector accounting body has yet to adopt and build upon its guidelines.

Flawed budgets and economic policy and inadequate investments in and too little protection of natural capital are inevitable results of Canada’s approach. Nature remains an afterthought, under-reported and/or undervalued in most public and private sector decision-making.

Against this challenging backdrop, the federal establishment of an Expert Taskforce on Natural Capital Accounting and Nature Financing is encouraging. The Taskforce could help accelerate domestic efforts already underway and spur Canada to learn from and build upon best practices of leading countries globally.

But the Taskforce is just one step. Progress in areas beyond the Taskforce work is essential and urgently needed. Key changes include improved budgeting and other policy decisions to truly reflect nature’s value and costs. Advancing natural asset accounting, improving nature-related risk management, and meaningfully boosting nature finance should all be underway now.

CPAWS’ Crucial Role

CANADA’S PROTECTED AND CONSERVED AREAS (PCAs)

PCAs contributed $10.9 billion to Canada’s GDP.
PCAs store carbon, equal to keeping the emissions of 57.8 billion cars out of the atmosphere!
84% of Canadians say PCAs improve health and well-being.
Women often consider these spaces to be critical for healthy children and family development.

CPAWS 2026 study, Widely Enjoyed but Inadequately Valued, is a milestone in boosting the public understanding of the economic benefits of protected areas. Its comprehensive analysis set out the significant boosts of Canada’s parks and wilderness directly to the economy, incomes, jobs and tax revenues. Notably, this report’s holistic approach also highlighted their massively important intangible economic services, and huge cultural, environmental, health and recreation benefits.

This research complements CPAWS’ ongoing work in holding Ottawa and the provinces to account for their policy efforts and the effects on natural spaces and biodiversity. This work remains vital given the federal push to expedite its large-scale investments in defence, housing, and infrastructure, and major project approvals. The need to streamline project reviews is clear. But streamlining does not mean gutting. Environmental reviews will continue to be flawed if they do not account for and reflect the impact on nature, and the full costs of development.

CPAWS’ ongoing fundraising to support existing protected spaces and to help create new parks and preserve wilderness and conserve nature is clearly needed. Its work with Indigenous partners stands out for me as well. Indigenous knowledge and practices are indispensable to preserving and sustaining nature in Canada, and CPAWS partnership is a cornerstone of facilitating their adoption at the national and provincial levels.

Article written by:

James K. Stewart

James K. Stewart is an economist, a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, a member of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation advisory committee, and a board member of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. He is the author or co-author of over 50 articles and several major reports examining topics ranging from the economic value and financial benefits of natural assets and ecosystem services to behavioural economics, macroeconomic policy and financial markets.

Email: [email protected]