These grassroots projects add up to 'powerful force' in the biodiversity fight
COP15 targets must be ambitious to tackle urgent problem: Andrew Gonzalez
At a greenhouse on Aamjiwnaang First Nation on the edge of Sarnia, Ont., one technician describes his work as "ground zero" for wider efforts to protect and restore biodiversity.
"We're supplying a lot of the plants for a lot of these restoration jobs," said Dylan Henry, a technician at Maajiigin Gumig, the First Nation's greenhouse, seed orchard and plant nursery. "Without these plants, you can't have a lot of these other wildlife."
He pointed to plants they grow that are a vital food source for caterpillars and other insects. In turn, those caterpillars are a food source for birds and their chicks, he said.
"It just kind of like ripples out," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.
The global effort to protect biodiversity is being hammered out in Montreal this week, as negotiators from around the world draft new targets at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15. That framework will involve cutting pollution, ensuring sustainable agriculture and forestry, and setting aside 30 per cent of land, freshwater and oceans for conservation by 2030.
Andrew Gonzalez, founding director of the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science says smaller initiatives like Maajiigin Gumig's are crucial to protecting biodiversity on a global scale, particularly in the face of research showing steep declines in bird, animal and plant life.
"It accumulates fast when we start to do these acts," said Gonzalez, who is also a professor of biology at McGill University.
"[It] might seem modest initially. But if that becomes a movement, if that becomes a day-to-day thing … then it becomes an extremely powerful force for good."
Canada has signed on to the COP15 pledge, but has fallen short of the previous set of targets, which were made in 2010.
Back then, countries agreed to protect 17 per cent of land and inland bodies of water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Latest figures show Canada has conserved 13.5 per cent, and 13.9 per cent, respectively.
The new framework must be ambitious and collaborative, said Gonzalez, who gives Canada a C+ on efforts so far.
"We are rapidly degrading and rapidly entering a mass extinction event. So we really need this urgently," he said.
Deciding what to conserve
Gonzalez said there are several factors that play into deciding which specific locations get marked for conservation.
One aspect is "biological richness," i.e., how exceptional the plant and animal life is in an area, he said. But he added that "increasingly we value nature for the many benefits it gives to people — social, health, but also economic."
An area of rich biodiversity might also play a role in the "mitigation of heat extremes, cleaning our air and our waters, [and] preventing flooding" — all services that would pose financial costs if they were lost, he said.
"It's about balancing an array of arguments, and if we only see the value of nature through one lens, then we don't see the full spectrum," Gonzalez said.
Just northwest of Montreal's biggest airport lies Technoparc, a mixture of woods, wetlands and grasslands.
It's home to many bird species, some of which have experienced "dramatic decline" in recent decades, said Katherine Collin, an organizer with Technoparc Oiseaux, a citizens group lobbying to protect the land from development.
"We don't want to exaggerate and say the population would die out if this particular marsh is not saved," said Collin, "but we do know that it is death by a thousand paper cuts and that the destruction of habitat cannot be sustained."
Collin and other volunteers refill bird feeders around Technoparc almost daily, and encounter everything from smaller species to large predators.
"To be alone while walking and have a huge barred owl sitting on a branch at eye level — it's breathtaking," she said.
Gonzalez said there's added impetus to protect places like Technoparc, which are in close proximity to built-up urban areas.
With most Canadians living in cities, losing easy access to rich biodiversity can diminsh "our baseline expectation for what nature can be," he said.
"It's about maintaining a positive experience for as many people living in an urban environment as possible."
Look to old Indigenous teachings
Back at the Maajiigin Gumig greenhouse, there is a focus on plant species that Indigenous people relied on before colonization.
"A lot of these species have cultural importance towards our people … we use them for medicines, for foods or for textiles, clothing, ropes, etc.'" said Henry, the technician.
He sees his work as a way to reconnect with his ancestors, which could offer invaluable insight.
"To kind of reclaim a lot of these wild areas, I think we have to start returning back to those old teachings," he said.
Dennis Plain works with endangered and at-risk plant species at Maajiigin Gumig. He said he sees his work as a form of reconciliation, with the planet itself.
"We've collectively almost abused it, and took it for granted and took everything we could from it, and didn't really give back," he said.
"If we, you know, treat her with love, then we should be all right."
