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Making Biodiversity Count: A call to action for all Canadians

Making Biodiversity Count

A call to action for all Canadians

Making Biodiversity Count: A call to action for all Canadians

The 2016 Living Planet report issued a dramatic warning: 67% of wild animals will disappear by 2020. Imagine how grey our world will become with this unprecedented loss. With this knowledge, we decided to take action. We brought together 20 female researchers, practitioners, and civil society leaders from the Women for Nature network to discuss what could be done. Following a series of virtual online conversations, we published a biodiversity action agenda. This call to action encourages all Canadians to tackle biodiversity loss as there is no recovery from extinction.

The agenda consists of 24 actions ranging from individual, community, to government wide changes. It is organized into 4 sections: strategies and plans; public engagement; policy recommendations and political leadership. We encourage you to take both personal and community steps and also share actions with your elected leaders. Make your voice heard for those who can’t speak for themselves.

White and brown owl surrounded by yellow flowers
Photo by Andy Chilton on Unsplash

The public engagement section of the agenda stresses the need for a national communication campaign to increase public understanding of biodiversity and to share solutions for local and global action. Led by our board chair, Dr. Ann Dale, the National Environmental Treasure took on this challenge. We launched a country-wide campaign in October 2019 to engage the hearts and minds of Canadians to act now on this critical human issue. Our goal is to communicate the urgent need to reconnect to natural systems and to conserve biodiversity in our communities.

Over the next year, a group of experts will blog on each action from the agenda. We will also share their ideas across our social media channels. We hope to inspire and empower individuals, communities and decision-makers to take action and implement solutions to reverse biodiversity loss. One critical step would be to protect 30% of Canada’s land and oceans by 2030.

The world is grey without biodiversity. Together, let’s enrich the colours in our world.