Nature can’t wait

At the end of March, a $2.3-billion funding commitment for nature is set to expire. What’s at risk is far more than funding. Canada has made real commitments to protect and restore nature — essential commitments as biodiversity loss and climate change intensify. And nature can’t wait for promises to become action.

Canada has committed to protecting 30 per cent of our land and waters and restoring 30 per cent of degraded habitats by 2030. Yet progress on these and other nature commitments is falling behind; key programs have been cancelled, and the funding that makes it all possible is about to lapse. The government has an opportunity — and an obligation — to change course.

Nature isn’t a luxury. It’s the foundation of our food systems, our clean water, our climate resilience and our livelihoods. Letting this funding expire doesn’t just set back conservation, it undermines the nation-building investments Canada is counting on for the decades and generations ahead.

We’ve made progress worth protecting: 13.8 per cent of our land and 15.5 per cent of our oceans are now conserved. But unless we move faster, we are threatening vulnerable species like southern resident killer whales and woodland caribou, as well as risking escalating climate change impacts and failing future generations.

Tell the federal government to close the nature funding gap and deliver on the promises it made for nature. Nature can’t wait.