Overview
- - The federal government, which unveiled the $3.8 billion strategy Tuesday in Wakefield, said it expects to hit 30% protection on land by 2030 and about 28% in marine areas.
- - The plan names new protected sites, including the Wiinipaawk Indigenous Protected Area and National Marine Conservation Area in Eastern James Bay and the Seal River Watershed National Park Reserve in Manitoba.
- - Ottawa earmarked $231 million over five years for Indigenous Guardians and will launch a spring taskforce on natural capital accounting to draw private finance into conservation.
- - To help meet the land target, the strategy leans on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures, which count multi-use places that still protect nature, such as a B.C. cemetery that preserves a rare forest type and a Manitoba military base with intact habitat.
- - Conservation groups praised renewed funding but pressed for a binding federal nature law and permanent Indigenous governance funding, and some flagged a clash with support for the Bay du Nord oil project.