The Ecology Action Centre congratulates Prime Minister Carney and his team on the release of A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature. We are very pleased to see Canada’s recommitment to protect 30 per cent of its lands and waters by 2030, and to meet our obligations under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This $3.8 billion investment represents a meaningful effort to close the gap between Canada's biodiversity goals and on-the-ground results, which have faced many challenges in recent years. Canadians already know that protecting nature is an essential national project, and Canada’s refreshed nature strategy has the potential to put us on the right path.
However, there are important questions about how this strategy will be implemented – especially in light of competing resource development interests and other countervailing pressures.
Focusing on high-quality protections
We urge the federal government to prioritize national parks, national wildlife areas and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas as the foundation of Canada's protected and conserved areas network. Other Effective Conservation Measures (OECMs) make up a substantial portion of the pathway for 30x30. OECMs should be viewed as a supplement to, not a substitute for, designated protected areas. Many OECMs lack durable and consistent standards, and we fear these designations can be used to inflate protected area statistics without delivering the biodiversity conversation outcomes we need. We are already starting to see this in the Nova Scotia terrestrial context, where the provincial government is counting OECMs toward protected area targets while failing to do the real work of designating high-quality natural spaces, many of which have been awaiting designation for well over a decade.
New national parks and national urban parks
We are excited about the possibility of new investment in our national park system and the possibility of a national urban park for Nova Scotia. All levels of government and stakeholder groups have put years of hard work into advancing the candidate national urban park at Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes (BMBCL) in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. In this growing city, BMBCL provides accessible natural space, supporting the physical and mental health outcomes that come from regular access to nature. The rural economic activity associated with national parks in Nova Scotia (e.g., Kejimkujik, Cape Breton Highlands) can offer long-term, sustainable livelihoods throughout the province. Sustainable conservation and tourism economies can serve both international and domestic visitors and offer a bulwark against export markets and energy shocks hurting farmers, fish harvesters and foresters.
Marine protected and conserved areas
We also welcome the $444.3 million to expand marine protected and conserved areas by finishing existing projects and designating new areas. Progress on marine protection in Atlantic Canada has stalled in recent years, and courage is required to ensure protected areas can complete the designation process and provide a high level of ecological value.
Maintain strong development guardrails
A healthy environment is not in tension with a strong economy. We are glad to see the strategy acknowledge the enormous economic value of nature's services and the scale of investment required to protect them. However, we are concerned that the framing of accelerated permitting, landscape mapping for "project investment decisions" and "responsible development" will tip the balance toward expediting industrial projects rather than strengthening nature protections. We must ensure that regulatory safeguards in place are meaningfully upheld where nature is put at risk.
Funding for Nova Scotia
The Nova Scotia government recently failed to properly capitalize on an opportunity to access millions of dollars in federal funds to support conservation through the Canada-Nova Scotia Nature Agreement. We urge Canada and Nova Scotia to find a good faith path forward to protect the special places Nova Scotians care about.
With resource development set to move faster across Canada, long-term investments to safeguard nature are more important than ever. We are pleased to see a renewed commitment to protecting nature, and we look forward to working to ensure this strategy results in science-based, community-led action to restore and protect biodiversity.