Category: Recommendations

Decade of Restoration: our shared pathway to Target 2

Total Recommended Investment: $1.045 billion over seven years, coupled with redirecting $2.55 billion in existing funds to achieving Target 2.

This investment is to ensure that by 2030 at least 30% of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity. [NRCan, ECCC, PC, DFO, AAFC]

Context: Robust efforts and a highly ambitious plan are required to meet Target 2 in the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) to restore 30% of degraded habitat on land, in freshwaters, and along our coasts, as well as to meet the Bonn Challenge to restore 19 million hectares of terrestrial ecosystems. Achieving Canada’s restoration goals will require:

  • A commitment of funds and the establishment of targets for the restoration of degraded lands, coastal areas, and freshwater habitats;
  • The support and mobilization of land and water stewards with jurisdiction and authority over degraded habitats (Indigenous Peoples, federal- land stewards, land stewards in other levels of government, private landowners);
  • Policies and programs ensuring benefit sharing with Indigenous Peoples in the restoration economy;
  • An increase in the number of trained restoration professionals working to identify and apply the restoration approaches necessary to achieve the targets for specific regions and habitats (e.g., on land: active and passive restoration, fire, revegetation, invasive species control); and
  • Establishing the regional demand for restoration materials (primarily seeds and trees) so that a regionally appropriate supply of materials can be built over time.

Create a restoration coordinating body

The coordinating body would drive collaboration within the federal government and across governments and sectors, support work to define baselines and set targets, and work toward the following goals:

  • Improving the integration of existing restoration programs to measure impact and maximize cross jurisdictional efforts;
  • Supporting work to direct and expand existing funds, or establish new funds;
  • Developing clear national degraded-habitat restoration targets in the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP);
  • Developing policies favouring and promoting use of local, native plants in restoration and reclamation;
  • Creating a robust native-seed supply that does not deplete natural seed sources;
  • Supporting Indigenous-led restoration and Indigenous participation in the restoration economy, including the native seed and tree supply system; and
  • Supporting the agricultural sector to contribute to the restoration of degraded habitat, for example on marginal lands and riparian areas, and to build a native seed supply on agricultural lands.

$20 million over six years [NRCan or ECCC]

Support a national seed supply for land-based restoration

For Canada to meet Target 2, approximately 95 million kilograms of ecologically appropriate native grass and wildflower seed would be required. Current supply is insufficient.

  • Support Indigenous-led native seed-needs assessment and priority setting for restoration.
  • Build horticultural capacity within Indigenous communities to enable more equitable participation in the restoration economy.
  • Create an inter-departmental working group to pinpoint native seed needs for federal land restoration and address procurement and funding timeline barriers to provide assurance of demand to the native seed industry.
  • Create and staff native plant materials development centres in each priority place to collect and track wildtype seed and coordinate seed supply with local producers.
  • Support regional native plant restoration jobs training and best-practices guidelines.
  • Develop an ecoregional seed tracking and labeling program (in collaboration with the Canadian Seed Growers Association and/or the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)) at no cost to native plant producers.

$50 million over six years [NRCan, AAFC, ECCC]

Direct and establish funds to achieve Canada’s restoration goals

$3.53 billion over seven years:

  • $2.55 billion in existing funds,
  • plus $975 million in new funding

Directing existing federal and provincial/territorial program funds toward achieving the following goals, while being supported by key infrastructure and capacity, would go a long way:

  • Using existing funds to contribute to Canada’s goals for the restoration of degraded terrestrial and aquatic habitat. $2.55 billion over seven years [multiple departments, see table below]
  • Establishing the Canada Target 2 Restoration Fund to restore degraded terrestrial habitat that is not included within the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund or the 2 Billion Tree program. $500 million over seven years [ECCC, NRCan]
  • Establishing a new Habitat Infrastructure Renewal Fund to upgrade and extend the lifespan and functionality of existing conservation assets on public and private lands. This fund will protect and enhance their climate and biodiversity benefits. $150 million over four years [ECCC]
  • Establishing a new funding stream to implement Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Living Labs techniques for best practices to restore degraded habitat for on-farm carbon sequestration. $25 million over five years [AAFC]
  • Expanding the Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Fund to include coastal and inland habitat and support a federal program to:
    • Build and sustain partnerships to restore degraded or destroyed fish habitat in priority watersheds and for priority species;
    • Support the development and implementation of regional habitat restoration plans;
    • Increase the capacity of Indigenous and non- governmental organizations to deliver high- quality fish-habitat restoration projects;
    • Restore and improve fish habitat through cost-shared projects identified by the regional restoration plans; and
    • Establish a fish-passage program to restore access to habitat for focal species in priority watersheds.

$250 million over six years [DFO]

  • Expanding the Parks Canada Conservation and Restoration Program to restore degraded terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal habitat within Canada’s system of National Park and National Historic Sites, including fully funding the Southern Alberta Seed Strategy for restoration. $50 million over six years [PC]
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Download PDF to see the table allocating existing funds to contribute to Canada’s restoration goals and targets

Conserving Canada’s ocean

Marine protected area (MPA) network planning and marine spatial planning (MSP) are essential tools to implement Target 1 of the KMGBF for coasts and oceans. Target 1 seeks to “[e]nsure that all areas are under participatory, integrated and biodiversity inclusive spatial planning and/or effective management processes addressing land-and sea-use change” and aims to stop the loss of areas of high ecological importance and integrity.

If the current serious declines in ocean biodiversity are to be halted and reversed, it is critical that Marine Protected Area networks are the first priority in any spatial planning initiatives. MSP can enhance the performance of MPA networks by ensuring that the management of any marine uses outside of MPAs is complementary to the conservation objectives, thereby supporting connectivity between MPAs and providing for buffer zones around MPAs.

Marine protected area network planning

The Government of Canada has committed to completing marine protected area (MPA) networks in five priority marine bioregions though none have yet been completed. By ensuring ecological connectivity between protected areas, MPA networks amplify conservation benefits and more effectively address climate impacts by allowing species to move between sites while remaining protected. MPA network planning processes in BC’s Northern Shelf Bioregion and the Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy region are furthest ahead, but there remains considerable work to do and significant funding will be needed to support successful implementation. MPA network planning is an integrated and inclusive process that requires considerable investment to ensure effective stakeholder engagement, science support, and capacity building and engagement of partner organizations, including other federal agencies, Indigenous, provincial and territorial governments.

Recommended Investment:
$160 million over five years to complete MPA network planning processes already underway and to start MPA network planning in four additional bioregions by 2030. [DFO, PC, ECCC]

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP)

Marine Spatial Planning is an inclusive, comprehensive, and strategic approach to the use and management of ocean space and marine resources with a view to protecting ecosystems, ensuring sustainability, and reducing overlap and conflicts between uses. MSP optimizes societal benefits from human activities while at the same time providing long-term protection of nature. MSP is a process that is being used by countries around the world.

MSP requires new governance arrangements that bring together various levels of government, including Indigenous governments, and the variety of stakeholders with an interest in the ocean region. The success of MSP hinges on a participatory approach and comprehensive governance. New governance arrangements, particularly with Indigenous peoples, is a critical component of successful MSP, and will require capacity support and ongoing funding. Building relationships and ensuring effective Indigenous and stakeholder engagement requires funding certainty that cannot be met with short term budget commitments.

The Government of Canada is currently proceeding with MSP in five regions, including: Southern BC; Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves; Estuary and Gulf of Saint Lawrence; and Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy. In the fifth region, the Pacific North Coast (also known as Northern Shelf Bioregion) in BC, the federal government can enhance the work by Coastal First Nations (CFN) and the provincial government in their marine spatial planning process, the Marine Planning Partnership (MaPP). DFO is already working with CFN and the province on co- developing an MPA network as a priority output of the MSP process. Initial plans for the five regions are to be completed in 2024, but ongoing funding is required to continue collaborative processes, support implementation and consultation, and to begin MSP in other regions.

The original investment for MSP was made in 2018 with a one-year extension in 2023.

Recommended Investment:
$75 million over five years, then $15 million per year, ongoing [DFO, ECCC, PC, NRCan, TC]

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Endowment fund to strengthen private land conservation sector

The land trust sector plays an important role in implementing the KMGBF’s goals and the protection of land in the most threatened areas of Canada. The Green Budget Coalition recommends establishing a Canada Conservation Endowment Fund, modelled on the Canada Cultural Investment Fund or the Green Municipalities Fund, to strengthen the private land conservation sector by providing long- term financial stability for land trusts and other organizations that hold conserved private land in perpetuity. Such a fund would help meet KMGBF Targets 1, 3, and 4 and propel the acquisition and effective stewardship of protected lands.

Recommended Investment:
$300 million over three years, that would be matched 1:1 by private sources. [ECCC]

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Key Biodiversity Areas

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, and are essential to meeting targets in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Many KBAs will be in southern Canada, including in and around urban areas, and their conservation will provide benefits to Canadians (Targets 11 & 12). An initiative to identify KBAs in Canada began in 2019, and work to identify additional ecosystem KBAs will continue until December 2025. As the identification period of the program winds down, efforts to develop and implement national monitoring and stewardship plans for KBAs will increase. Canada’s Nature Legacy renewal should include funding to finalize the identification of Canada’s Key Biodiversity Areas. It should also implement a monitoring and stewardship program to bring the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance, including ecosystems of high ecological integrity, close to zero by 2030 (Target 1).

Recommended Investment: $3 million over six years [ECCC, PC]

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Ecological connectivity

Ecological connectivity is vitally important to ensuring effective protected area networks that conserve nature. It is also critical to tackle top threats to biodiversity: habitat loss, fragmentation, and climate change. A number of goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Framework emphasize the fundamental contribution that ecological connectivity makes to healthy functioning ecosystems and species, and achieving the framework’s objectives. Federal investment is needed for a nation-wide connectivity fund to support work by Crown and Indigenous governments, NGOs, and private interests to conserve areas identified as important for ecological connectivity, create effective mitigation measures to improve connectivity of fragmented landscapes, and to advance connectivity conservation.

Recommended Investment: $500 million over five years [ECCC, PC]

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