Woodland caribou in the boreal forest. Credit: Jean-Simon Bégin

OVERVIEW:

  • The CBD is being held in Montreal from December 5-17
  • It’s critical that Canada, being the host nation and home to a high percentage of earth’s ecosystems, show up to these talks with a bold, decolonized plan to tackle the extinction crisis 
  • A Nature & Biodiversity Act could lay the legislative groundwork for this plan 
  • Call Guilbeault at 613-992-6779 and tell him to pass one!

In five months, Canada will host the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the biggest nature protection event of the decade. In five months, we’ll also still be in the midst of a mass extinction event. 

This is not a drill. Yet the CBD has been described as the “least well-prepared major environmental conference in recent memory” that will be a “dumpster fire” without real leadership. 

What does “real leadership” mean for Canada, the host country of the CBD? It means following Indigenous leadership. It means prioritizing people (and the natural world that sustains people) over profit. And it means developing an action plan to actually reach biodiversity targets. 

Protecting Nature, Protecting Life

A strong action plan to reach targets is critical for the simple reason that Canada has missed virtually every biodiversity target it has ever set for itself. Personally, I don’t trust a government that hasn’t even achieved its original target of protecting 17% of land by 2020 to achieve its sparkly new target of protecting 30% of land and waters by 2030. If we are to reach this target, we need a plan to get there. And that plan is exactly what Greenpeace Canada outlined in our Protecting Nature, Protecting Life report that we published last month. 

Legislating systems change: A Nature and Biodiversity Act

The reason why Canada hasn’t achieved any of its biodiversity targets is because our government is still organized around the same purpose it has been since the inception of this country: extracting obscene amounts of wealth from stolen Indigenous land. This is the reason that Canadian animal populations have been declining since 1970. It’s the reason that there are 1,231 species (and counting) listed under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA), not a single one of which has ever fully recovered. And it’s why our government is still approving mega offshore oil projects, building pipelines, and logging old-growth forests in a climate and biodiversity crisis. 

Something has to change. While we are mindful of not getting into the specifics of new laws without deep and meaningful consultation with Indigenous Peoples, we—along with environmental lawyers from Ecovision and Ecojustice—have provided some recommendations. A Nature & Biodiversity Act should: 

  • Be truly decolonized. This means recognizing the Indigeneity of the stolen land we are on and centering Indigenous rights and knowledge systematically. (For example: Canada’s entire system of protected and conserved areas should be identified and managed in partnership with Indigenous governments, consistent with the principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent [FPIC] as expressed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.) 
  • Lay out a concrete plan. The Act should lay out specific interim targets and a plan to achieve them. 
  • Connect protected areas. When ecosystems are fragmented, habitat quality is degraded, species and gene pools can be isolated and lost, and the natural processes required to sustain ecosystem health are compromised. Connectivity is key, and a nature and biodiversity act would ensure it. 
  • Be fully transparent. Under this Act, the Minister of the Environment would regularly report back to the public with yearly progress reports. 
  • Guarantee equitable access. Solving the nature crisis requires building more inclusion so all people can both experience the natural world and contribute to its restoration. Effective legislation would enable people to connect with nature, not shut communities out of it.

Say yes to a better law for nature!

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault needs to Act

To put it bluntly: if we don’t transform human systems in the next decade, our natural systems—the ones that have evolved over billions of years to nurture life—will collapse, and we will cross a threshold into a strange and terrible new world. That crossing over is already occurring, with each new unprecedented heat wave, fire season, and ice shelf collapse. 

Our human systems shouldn’t be organized around the purpose of generating wealth for a select few, they should be organized around respecting and protecting the natural world that we all depend on for our well-being, health, safety, and joy. They should be organized around ensuring everyone in this country has equitable access to that natural world. And they should be organized around Indigenous leadership, because Indigenous peoples’ systems of governance and economy are keenly aware and deeply respectful of our planet’s ecological limits. 
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault has an unprecedented opportunity to make this happen. This December, he needs to show up to the CBD negotiations as if life on earth depends on it—because it does.

ACT: Call Steven Guilbeault and tell him to pass a Nature & Biodiversity Act!

613-992-6779

(NOTE: This is Guilbeault’s House of Commons phone number. You’ll most likely get his voice mail, but these messages are checked by his staff and they do make a difference. Below is a script of potential talking points—but I highly encourage you to make this message your own!)

Good evening Mr. Guilbeault, this is _________ calling from _________. 

I’m reaching out tonight as a concerned citizen who cares deeply about the natural world that we are all dependent on. I’m terrified that in a climate and biodiversity crisis, my own government continues to greenlight destructive projects in the name of economic growth that benefits a select few. 

Human health is intimately linked with ecosystem and species health, which is why Greenpeace Canada is calling for a strong Nature and Biodiversity Act that recognizes this fact and sets out a real plan to recover nature, complete with transparent report-backs to the public. 

The entire world will be looking to you as leaders during the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal. It is absolutely critical that you show up to these talks with ambitious targets, but more importantly, a strong accountability plan to reach those targets. It’s also equally important that you center decolonization and equity throughout the process.  A Nature & Biodiversity Act would ensure this. NOW is the time for legislative reform. Thank you for your consideration.