Government of Canada releases Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy
Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy: Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss in Canada outlines a comprehensive roadmap for conserving and enhancing biodiversity across the country. The strategy is based on the following six pillars that will ensure the country’s path to 2030 is inclusive, adaptable, and evidence-based:
- Recognizing, upholding, and implementing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and advancing reconciliation, as Indigenous Peoples are the original caretakers of the lands, waters, and ice.
- Ensuring a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to create policy coherence and draw on the strengths of every segment of society to build and deliver the solutions we need.
- Supporting a resilient economy and improving efficiency and certainty, as our prosperity is inherently linked to a healthy environment.
- Empowering on-the-ground action by reflecting regional differences, supporting communities, and adopting flexible community-based approaches.
- Using the best available science and knowledge, incorporating new insights, sharing information, and giving equal weight to western science and Indigenous Knowledge.
- Applying integrated, holistic approaches to ensure our actions are inclusive and transparent.
The strategy specifically highlights Target 12 as an opportunity to “improve how we design, build, and live in communities, including how to meet housing needs and infrastructure development while also reducing our environmental footprint and impacts on biodiversity, protecting and enhancing ecosystem services, improving human health, and enhancing climate resilience using NBS.”
The CSLA remains dedicated to supporting and advancing the goals of the 2030 Nature Strategy and we will continue to advocate for policies and practices that promote biodiversity, climate resilience, and sustainable urban development.
To read Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy, visit the Government of Canada’s website here.
CSLA responds to Canada's 2030 National Biodiversity Strategy Milestone Document
The CSLA has provided detailed feedback and recommendations to enhance Canada's 2030 National Biodiversity Strategy. Our response emphasizes the significant role that planning and design professionals play in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. The document outlines four primary recommendations:
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Engage Planning and Design Professionals: It urges the inclusion of planning and design professionals in the development and implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy. Their expertise in spatial planning, design, and development across various scales is crucial for achieving the strategy's objectives.
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Address Challenges in Human-Impacted Areas: The CSLA highlights the need to focus on areas most affected by human activities, especially urban and agricultural regions. These areas present significant challenges for biodiversity conservation, necessitating targeted protection and enhancement strategies.
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Prioritize Ecosystem and Society Objectives: Recommends supporting planning and design strategies that simultaneously benefit ecosystems and societal goals. This approach aims to harmonize human needs with ecological sustainability.
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Allocate resources that prioritize ecosystem-based planning and design, and nature-based solutions: The CSLA advocates for these approaches to become standard practice in urban and rural development, emphasizing their cost-effectiveness and critical role in global sustainability and climate adaptation.
The CSLA's response underscores the interconnectedness of biodiversity conservation with urban planning and design. It advocates for a collaborative approach, integrating the expertise of landscape architects and other design professions to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by Canada's unique biodiversity context.
CSLA Encourages Stronger Action on the Biodiversity Crisis
The CSLA urges governments at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP15 in Montréal to commit to strengthened global conservation and biodiversity goals by protecting at least 30 percent of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems by 2030 (30 x 2030).
Nature-Based Solutions by Design
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) provide society with powerful alternatives to challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, food security and accessibility to clean water.
Recognizing how fast environments are changing in today’s world, landscape architects often seek the newest science at a scale relevant to their work through constructive partnerships with scientists working in governments, academia, and international organizations. In doing so, we ensure that our profession operates on the best of current knowledge, and that we are capable and informed on changing priorities, policies, and best practices.
Read the CSLA's Nature-Based Solutions by Design brief
The Nature-Based Solutions by Design brief works hand in hand with the CSLA's Liveable Communities brief. Together, they make the case for our profession. Read the CSLA's Liveable Communities brief
Nature-based Solutions Workgroup
Focuses on promoting the profession's emphasis on NbS as a climate solution, and potentially liaise with other NbS groups, such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Members: Cynthia Graham (Chair), Hope Parnham (Manager, Advocacy and Strategic Initiatives), Alessandro Colavecchio, Todd Fell, Brad Keeler, Andrea Kennedy, Lauren Mac Isaac, Scott Murdoch, Amy René, Mauricio Garzón, Michael Ormston-Holloway, Karina Verhoeven, Kerrie Harvey