How conservation efforts can withstand the test of time and a warming planet

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We all felt a collective sense of grief this summer when Jasper, Alta, a beloved town and national park in the Rockies, was ravaged by wildfire. This no-longer-unimaginable tragedy happened on the heels of Canada’s record-destroying 2023 wildfire season which was so intense that thick smoke enveloped large swaths of the continent (and as far away as Europe).

In fact, six of the 10 worst Canadian wildfire seasons in recorded history have happened since 2013.

We’re breaking the wrong records for the wrong reasons. Extreme weather events once considered “100-year” occurrences are becoming more frequent and more intense. We’ve seen this with heatwaves and drought-driven wildfires, and we’re also seeing it with floods — like in southern Ontario, where unprecedented rainstorms flooded roads, subway stations and caused power outages this past summer, and in New Brunswick, where the Wolastoq River has been flooding more regularly and at record levels.

These climate-related events not only degrade habitat — they are costly to Canada’s economic bottom line. The Toronto floods and Jasper wildfires caused $940 million and $880 million in insurable losses, respectively, while the impacts on ecosystem services (the benefits that nature provides to people) from the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire, which burned almost 200,000 hectares of forest in interior B.C., were valued at more than $1 billion.

Canada is stuck in a dangerous cycle

Climate change has altered rainfall cycles, increasing the frequency and severity of floods and wildfires. At the same time, habitats are less resilient to these events than they once were because of how we’ve managed them.

For example, many forests are less resilient to wildfires than they once were because of how we’ve managed them, including fragmentation and the fact that fewer species — including deciduous trees, which are more fire-resistant but less commercially valuable — have been planted for forestry.

Trees and other vegetation can hold significant amounts of carbon in roots, stems and soils, which means nature should be our natural ally in the fight against climate change. But when landscapes that absorb and store billions of tonnes of carbon go up in smoke, that carbon gets released back into our atmosphere further increasing the already-dangerous levels of carbon emissions.

This vicious cycle has devastating consequences, not just here in Canada but for our entire planet.

Building ecological resilience

To safeguard wildlife, WWF-Canada and partners are prioritizing the restoration and protection of places where at-risk species live, breed and roam, and where high concentrations of carbon are stored in nature.

But that alone isn’t enough. To break this cycle and ensure our conservation efforts are successful in the long-term, we need to make habitats more resilient to flooding, wildfires and other impacts of climate change.

Now, you may be wondering what ecological resilience even means. Like a resilient person who is able to adapt to stressors and bounce back from tough situations or a resilient bridge that can endure an earthquake with a blend of strength and flexibility, a resilient habitat is one that can withstand and recover from — or even mitigate — the impacts of climate change.

And one of the best ways to build resilience is by bringing back biodiversity.

WWF-Canada is partnering with the Secwépemcul’ecw Restoration and Stewardship Society (SRSS) to restore Secwépemc territory devastated by forest fires. SRSS is building more climate-resilient forests by applying Indigenous knowledge to select the right mixture of tree species. A new forest-focused initiative will support more Indigenous-led stewardship and partnerships to help make Canadian forests more resilient in the face of ever-worsening fire seasons.

We have also been working with partners in the Wolastoq watershed to plant thousands of native trees and shrubs along damaged shore habitats — a tactic that improves wildlife habitat while reducing soil erosion, stabilizing riverbanks and absorbing more water during flood events.

When it comes to nature loss and the climate crisis, there are no winners. Let’s stop breaking records we can’t celebrate and get on nature’s side in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change.

The runway to slow the impacts of climate change is short but the path we’re on is reversible — if we act now. Please join us in being part of the solution today.