Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on land

Canadian ambition under life on land

Canada's ambitions^{Footnote 2} for this goal are to:

ensure all species have healthy and viable populations
conserve and restore ecosystems and habitat, with a national target to conserve 25% of Canada's land and inland waters by 2025, and 30% by 2030
sustainably manage forests, lakes, and rivers

Measuring Progress: the Canadian Indicator Framework

In collaboration with federal departments and agencies, Statistics Canada has developed the Canadian Indicator Framework (CIF) for the Sustainable Development Goals. The CIF includes 76 indicators specific to Canada, which measure progress using a set of nationally relevant, objective and comprehensive indicators. CIF indicators for SDG 15 are:

proportion of native wild species ranked secure or apparently secure according to the national extinction risk level
proportion of species at risk showing progress towards their population and distribution objectives
proportion of terrestrial (land and freshwater) areas conserved
proportion of the forest area under an independently verified forest management certification scheme
forest area as a proportion of total land area

What we are doing to improve life on land in Canada

Canada continues to increase the amount of conserved terrestrial area (land and freshwater). As of the end of 2022, 13.6% of Canada's land and inland water is recognized as protected or conserved through a network of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures.

Canada was the first industrialized country to ratify the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. It has been the host of the Convention's Secretariat since it was established in 1996. Cooperative work by federal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous, and municipal governments, industry, conservation organizations and others, is advancing biodiversity conservation and ecosystem health in Canada.

In 2015, Canada's federal, provincial, and territorial governments released the 2020 Biodiversity Goals and Targets for Canada. The final assessment of Canada's progress toward its 2020 biodiversity targets shows that we met or partially met 15 out of our 19 targets. The biodiversity crisis demands urgent and ambitious action, and Canada will build on past achievements and lessons learned while working toward 2030, leveraging a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.

In December 2022, Canada welcomed the world to a major international meeting focused on biodiversity, the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15). The main outcome was the agreement on an ambitious "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework". The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework consists of 4 global goals to 2050 and 23 global targets to 2030 to coordinate and drive international efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and put nature on a path to recovery.

Domestically, Canada is now working to put the new Global Biodiversity Framework into action by developing a comprehensive National Biodiversity Strategy and action plan to 2030 in collaboration with provinces, territories, Indigenous peoples and key stakeholders such as the private sector, civil society and youth among others. Implementing the Framework will require a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach.

The 2030 National Biodiversity Strategy will build on current investments and efforts so that there is continuity in implementation until the Strategy is finalized and released ahead of COP16 in 2024. It is anticipated that a draft Strategy will be ready for review by Canadians by the end of 2023.

Actions to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in Canada are already underway. Recent historic investments have put Canada on the path toward:

protecting 25% of land, lakes and oceans
protecting wildlife and recovering species at risk
developing and implementing nature agreements with provinces and territories.
supporting Indigenous-led area-based conservation, including through the establishment of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas
delivering the Indigenous Partnerships and Indigenous Guardians initiatives
creating large scale, Indigenous-led Project Finance for Permanence conservation initiatives
ensuring Canada can continue to meet key statutory core obligations to conserve and protect wildlife species and their habitat under the Species at Risk Act
enhancing Canadians' access to nature
creating jobs in nature conservation and management

Halting and reversing biodiversity loss necessitates involvement of provincial and territorial governments, as well as Indigenous peoples. Since 2021, Canada has been negotiating Nature Agreements that will seek commitments and engagement of these partners to advance key nature conservation objectives, including protecting land and water, protecting and recovering species at risk and their habitats, supporting Indigenous leadership in conservation, and advancing habitat restoration and natural climate solutions. Agreements have been concluded with partners in the Yukon and Nova Scotia, and negotiations are underway in several other parts of the country.

The Government of Canada is also working to establish 10 new national parks and 10 new national marine conservation areas (NMCAs) over 5 years (2021 to 2026). The federal government is also working with Indigenous communities on co-management agreements for these national parks and NMCAs.

The Government of Canada will continue to implement the Species at Risk including action planning, implementing recovery and restoration actions on the ground and in the water, monitoring the effectiveness of recovery actions, and reporting on the progress of recovery actions against recovery objectives.

The Government of Canada, in collaboration with provinces and territories, implements the Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada and concentrates conservation efforts on priority places, species, sectors and threats. This approach has shifted from a single-species approach to conservation to one that focuses on multiple species and ecosystems.

The federal government also invests in collaborative conservation approaches, such as those made possible by the Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk. The fund supports protection and recovery efforts targeting priority places and threats.

The Government of Canada collaborates with its provincial and territorial partners through the National Committee on Invasive Aquatic Species, under the Canadian Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers, to implement the Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations and manage the threat posed by invasive species to Canadian ecosystems.

The State of Canada's Forests annual report provides information to help Canada manage forests more sustainably, allowing decision-making based on robust historical data sets and key sustainable forest management indicators. The report provides a snapshot of the social, economic and environmental status of forests and forestry in Canada. A broad audience, including the public, uses the report.

Canada will carry out research to continuously increase knowledge and refine its world-leading practices for the sustainable management of forests.

The Government of Canada will also help protect old growth forests, notably in British Columbia, by:

advancing a nature agreement with B.C. and B.C. First Nations
providing a $55.1 million over 3 years (2022 to 2025) to establish a B.C. Old Growth Nature Fund
ensuring Indigenous peoples, as well as local communities and workers, are partners in shaping the path forward on nature protection

What Canada is doing to improve life on land abroad

Federal leadership in sustainable forest management is demonstrated through the International Model Forest Network. The network was developed in Canada in the early 1990s. Its secretariat is housed within the Natural Resources Canada. Today, 60 Model Forests in 35 countries cover an area of more than 70 million hectares.

Canada is also contributing to the Global Forest Finance Pledge, along with 11 other countries, to collectively provide US$12 billion by 2025 for the protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests.

In December 2022, at the COP15 on Biological Diversity, Canada announced a $350 million contribution to support developing countries to implement the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Through this new envelope, Canada is the first country to have contributed to the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund ($200 million) to help put nature on a path to recovery.

Canada has joined the Bonn Challenge, a global restoration initiative to bring 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes under restoration by 2030. The Government of Canada has pledged 19 million hectares under the Bonn Challenge, building on a set of federal funding programs that support on-the-ground restoration actions. Indigenous leadership and strong partnerships with all levels of government, industry, conservation organizations, and other stakeholders will be central to Canada's pledge and its successful implementation. The Government of Canada will also continue to work closely with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the international restoration community to share lessons learned, to explore continental level, large-scale collaboration opportunities, and to help demonstrate Canada's leadership in halting and reversing biodiversity loss through the restoration of degraded ecosystems.

Canada is also allocating a minimum of 40% of its $5.3 billion International Climate Finance Program to climate adaptation projects, and a minimum of 20% for projects that leverage nature-based climate solutions and projects that deliver biodiversity co-benefits. Canada's international climate finance commitment includes $300 million to support projects that use nature-based solutions to help countries, communities and people in Sub-Saharan Africa - a particularly climate-vulnerable region - to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change, and $15 million to support the partnering of Indigenous Peoples in Canada with Indigenous Peoples in developing countries around the world.

Canada is a Party to many other Conventions related to this SDG, including the:

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival
Convention on Wetlands (the Ramsar Convention), an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources
Canada is also working with Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification that calls for global action "to combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world"

Canada is supporting key regional initiatives such as the Great Green Wall in Sub-Saharan Africa, to counter the effects of desertification and land degradation. The Great Green Wall is a flagship initiative of the African Union and involves 11 Sub-Saharan African countries coast to coast, from Senegal to Djibouti.

Canada is a member of the Arctic Council working group on the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna. Through its work with the working group, Canada collaborates with other Arctic States and with representatives from Indigenous peoples in the Arctic Council, to address and support policy and decision-making pertaining to Arctic biodiversity. The working group's objectives are to:

develop common responses to biodiversity issues of importance to the Arctic, including monitoring and research
communicate findings to promote best practices to ensure the sustainability of the Arctic's living resources

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Date modified:: 2024-05-01

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