When nature is resilient, so is Canada

Amidst challenging times, NCC is working to strengthen Canada’s economic prosperity with resilient landscapes

Dawn Carr remembers when her insights into the global conservation movement came from a mailing list.

All that changed over the last few years as Dawn, NCC’s director of strategic conservation, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada as a whole, earned a literal seat at the table alongside the world’s other conservation movers-and-shakers.

“NCC is no longer just a part of those conversations; we’re helping to lead them,” Dawn says. “It’s a monumental shift.”

The turning point came at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in 2022, when NCC championed the need for governments, the private sector and all of society to increase their investments and take collective action toward the global targets of protecting 30 per cent of land and waters by 2030.

By 2024, when NCC co-hosted the fourth Global Congress of the International Land Conservation Network in October and at COP16 in November, it was clear that our call for collective action was taking root.

“As a proud member of the COP16 Canadian delegation, I was surrounded by the usual government and NGO representatives, along with the largest group of private sector businesses to ever attend a biodiversity COP — leaders in banking, mining and forestry, among others, all keen to talk to NCC about how we can create and support resilient landscapes and drive economic prosperity by working together,” says Dawn.

Top of mind for NCC and its many current and prospective partners was the intertwined relationship between resilient landscapes and economic prosperity.

“NCC recognizes that Canada’s natural resources are key to our nation’s economic stability and prosperity, but we can’t deliver on that prosperity without resilient landscapes,” Dawn explains, adding that “it only reinforces the need for us to collaborate in meaningful ways with industry, government and those who have an impact on the land to deliver effective conservation so we can all thrive and increase our resilience.”

This includes, of course, ongoing collaborations with Indigenous Peoples, who were formally recognized at COP16 with the establishment of a permanent body that ensures they also have a seat at the table for future global decisions on nature conservation.

“These are challenging times,” NCC’s president & CEO, Catherine Grenier, told Ambassadors’ Circle members at the livestream event in March.

But challenge also breeds opportunity.

“NCC has weathered many storms, and we will continue to do so by engaging with people, communities, businesses and provincial and federal governments to create tangible solutions to increase nature’s resilience.”