Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on Thursday published Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy: Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss in Canada (the Strategy) alongside proposed legislation titled the Nature Accountability Act (the Bill), which received its first reading in the House of Commons last week.
The Strategy outlines how Canada will implement its nature protection goals under the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) (see our earlier bulletin here), building on existing initiatives across Canada, and defining clear areas of action and improvement. The Bill aims to enshrine the government’s commitment to protecting nature in legislation.
At the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) on biological diversity in Montreal in 2022, Canada committed to protecting 30 per cent of its land and water by 2030, and putting nature on a recovery path by 2050. Canada’s Strategy is mandated to outline the actions that will be taken to achieve these goals.
This bulletin briefly summarizes the Strategy and the Bill.
The 2030 Nature Strategy:
With the aim of ensuring an inclusive, adaptable and evidence-based pathway, the Strategy sets out six pillars:
- Recognize and uphold Indigenous rights. Honour Indigenous peoples’ roles as original caretakers of the land, waters, and ice, and advance reconciliation through the protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP);
- Ensure a whole-of-society approach. Foster policy coherence and collective action across government, society, and industries;
- Support a resilient economy. Build a resilient economy that acknowledges the intrinsic link between prosperity and healthy environment;
- Adopt flexible community-based approaches. Support regional differences, empower communities, and adopt flexible approaches that reflect local needs;
- Use the best available science and equal weight to Western and Indigenous Knowledge. Combine Western science and Indigenous Knowledge to inform decision-making and share information transparently; and
- Ensure a holistic approach. Embrace integrated, inclusive, and transparent methods to ensure considerate and effective action.
Key federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) actions. The Strategy sets out the following FPT actions:
- Protecting 30 per cent of Canada’s land and waters by 2030 with commitments from British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba and Nova Scotia;
- Working to recover species at risk through the Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation, shifting to multi-species and ecosystem-based planning;
- Restoring degraded lands and ecosystems through the Natural Climate Solutions Fund working with the 2 Billion Trees program to restore forests, peatlands and grasslands;
- Efforts to support Indigenous-led conservation and implementing UNDRIP including a commitment to co-development with First Nations, as well as FPT collaboration in Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) initiatives; and
- Improving the nature knowledge base through FPT scientific research programs and collaboration with non-government researchers.
Key federal target-specific implementation plans (Annex 1). The Strategy sets out several initiatives mapped to the targets of the GBF, including:
- Ecosystem restoration (Target 2). By 2030, restore at least 30 per cent of degraded ecosystems including terrestrial, freshwater, and marine areas to revitalize biodiversity, ecosystem services, and ecological integrity, and reconnect fragmented habitats.
- Protect and conserve areas (Target 3). By 2030, protect and conserve at least 30 per cent of land, water, and marine areas, respecting indigenous rights and traditional territories, through effective conservation measures and sustainable management, by recognizing Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs), increasing Nature Agreements (NAs) and supporting Indigenous-led conservation.
- Climate change and biodiversity (Target 8). Mitigate climate change and ocean acidification impacts on biodiversity by reducing harm, promoting resilience, utilizing nature-based solutions (NBS) and ecosystem-based approaches (EbA), while ensuring climate actions have positive effects on biodiversity. This requires reducing greenhouse has (GHG) emissions economy-wide, legislated through the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act.
- The role for business (Target 15a). Implement legal, administrative, or policy measures to encourage and require businesses, and financial institutions, to (i) monitor, assess, and transparently disclose their biodiversity-related risks, dependencies, and impacts; and (ii) extend these requirements throughout their operations, supply chains, value chains, and investment portfolios.
- Recourse mobilization – financial resources (Target 19). Mobilize $200B annually by 2030 to implement national biodiversity strategies. The government has stated that it will continue to identify how to allocate funds better, attract private sector resources for a whole-of-society approach, and restore nature at the domestic and international levels.
The Nature Accountability Act (Bill C-73)
The Bill aims to establish an accountability framework for the federal government in fulfilling its GBF and related United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) commitments. The Bill outlines concrete steps to achieve these goals by 2050, including developing national biodiversity strategies and action plans, like the Strategy, and reporting on progress. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change would be required to consider Indigenous Knowledge and UNDRIP rights when developing strategies and reports.
Canada is one of the first countries in the world to propose legislation enshrining an accountability and transparency framework to meet GBF commitments. We also note that the Council of the European Union today formally adopted the Nature Restoration Law, a landmark regulation to restore 20 percent of land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. The law sets legally binding targets and obligations for various ecosystems, aiming to combat climate change and natural disasters. It will come into effect 20 days after publication in the EU Official Journal.
For further information or to discuss the contents of this bulletin, please contact Lisa DeMarco at lisa@resilientllp.com.
*Special thanks to Anuja Purohit for her assistance in preparing this bulletin.