Monte Hummel receives Citation of Lifetime Achievement

The award is presented to those individuals who have shown exceptional lifelong dedication to environmental protection. Monte delivered a spirited keynote address titled “Canada’s Geography: Doing Right by Our Birthright” at a gala held at Spruce Meadows in Calgary, AB.

The Canadian Environment Awards: A Celebration of Community Achievement is a national program that recognizes individuals and groups of Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to the protection, restoration and preservation of the Canadian environment. According to Rick Boychuk, editor of Canadian Geographic and chair of the 2004 Awards panel, “Having the opportunity to honour Monte is a singular treat for everyone involved in the program,” Boychuk explains. “We’ve long admired his activities and dedication to Canada’s environment.”

This recognition comes after Monte Hummel founded and launched Pollution Probe and served for 26 years as the leader of WWF-Canada. In the 1980s, he inspired regional conservation programs such as Whales Beneath the Ice (in the Arctic), Carolinian Canada (in south-western Ontario) and Wild West (in the Prairie provinces). Then in the 1990s, Monte led the 10-year Endangered Spaces Campaign which saw over 1000 new parks, ecological reserves and wilderness areas established, effectively doubling the amount of protected area in Canada.

In his speech, Monte urged Canadians “Not to give your geography away,” but instead, “Make it a top priority that is not for sale.” To accomplish this, he emphasized WWF-Canada’s Conservation First principle, which calls on government and industry to give communities the chance to identify and protect areas that are important to them in advance of development. This is a principle WWF-Canada is currently supporting in the Northwest Territories’ Mackenzie Valley that Hummel called “A conservation line in the sand.”

“If this energy project, one of the largest in our history, is allowed to proceed without sequencing conservation first, it will set a terrible precedent for the long list of similar-scale developments waiting in the wings elsewhere in Canada, and the world.”

Monte Hummel expects to become President Emeritus of WWF-Canada later this year, as the organization transitions its leadership to a new President and CEO. This change will free Monte to be even more active, especially in Arctic and boreal forest issues.

“I feel very fortunate to really enjoy what I do for a living, and to have been able to commit my life to something as beautiful as the wildlife, lands and seas of Canada,” said Monte Hummel. “I’ve worked with great people and I’m far from finished.”