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Biodiversity Caucus - Spring 2025 Newsletter
TheBiodiversity Caucusbridges local and global activities, uniting public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Our primary goal, aligned with our Memorandum of Understanding with Environment and Climate Change Canada, is to implement theConvention on Biological Diversity (CBD). We aim to raise awareness, build capacity, and encourage proactive biodiversity protection.
The Caucus provides a collective voice for organizations, offering guidance to national environmental groups, governments at all levels, the private sector, international organizations, and multilateral environmental agreement secretariats. Grounded in the CBD's definition of biological diversity, we emphasize genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity while respecting diverse belief systems and political views.
The Biodiversity Caucus hosted an engagement session on the Biodiversity and Climate Change Assessment (BCCA), a first of its kind North America’s continental assessment, on December 5th, 2024. During the session, we delved into the intersection of biodiversity and climate change across North America and discussed the First Order Draft. Attendees shared valuable insights, and guest speakers provided unique perspectives, enriching the conversation. This collaborative effort aimed to shape the direction of the assessment. Following the session, all feedback was compiled into a “What We Heard” document, and submitted to the USGCRP portal. Stay tuned for further updates as we continue to contribute to this important process!
The 2025 Ontario Biodiversity Summit: Our turning point for nature will bring people together to build a future where biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and people live in harmony with nature. A turning point is a moment of profound change which significantly alters the future.
We are losing biodiversity at an alarming rate. Experts around the world are calling for immediate and urgent actions to address the causes of biodiversity loss, climate change, and ecosystem degradation. Our turning point for nature is intended to generate the pivotal transformative actions we need to take to halt and reverse biodiversity loss in Ontario.
Join us at the summit to find common threads between different sectors, areas of expertise and knowledge systems and weave them together to help build our turning point for nature. The summit and its outcomes will also drive implementation of Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy and its 13 targets and 43 priority actions.
The 2025 Ontario Biodiversity Summit will be an in-person event, to maximize networking and collaboration. It will include a mix of plenary content, workshops, concurrent sessions and networking activities, all located on the Trent University campus.
In this thought-provoking piece, Rosalind Warner, Chair of RCEN’s SDG Caucus and Co-Chair of the RCEN Biodiversity Caucus, examines how nature’s influence can be amplified within international policy. She stresses the importance of integrating biodiversity into global frameworks, strengthening legal protections like ecocide, and addressing the root causes of biodiversity loss. While recognizing the strides made in valuing nature, Warner calls for further action to secure its place in creating a sustainable future for the planet.
The Biodiversity Caucus Steering Committee would like to welcome you to this new section of our Newsletter! Here, we are hoping to spotlight YOUR local initiatives across the country! What is happening in your neighbourhood? Let us know and we will share with our members and beyond!
First Things First Okanagan Climate Action (FTFO) is a non-profit society encouraging the public and all levels of government to take actions to halt climate change. FTFO hosts regular Deep Dive discussions monthly online. Topics: transportation, economic recovery, buildings, public engagement, agriculture, food security, and more. Sign up for the e-newsletter to get notifications of upcoming Deep Dives, and watch the recordings of previous events on Youtube.
In news from the opposite side of the country, Halifax Regional Municipality’s Environment and Climate Change team is launching a new project in 2025 called Living Lakeshores! This project is a partnership with TransCoastal Adaptations Centre for Nature-based Solutions (TCA) at Saint Mary’s University and the Ecology Action Centre. The project focuses on enhancing freshwater shoreline resilience and promoting nature-positive restoration approaches. It will include the completion of three restoration projects between 2025 and 2026 along freshwater shorelines in municipally owned parks. The project will also offer free Green Shores® training sessions to any municipal resident interested in learning about restoring shorelines in their own communities. This work will be complementary to LakeWatchers, the municipality's ongoing, volunteer-powered, water quality monitoring program for over 70 of the region’s many lakes! HRM’s most recent State of the Lakes Report will be published online early this spring! Learn more by visiting TCA's website!
Member Spotlight
ENGO Spotlight: Nature Canada
Nature Canada is one of the oldest national nature conservation charities in Canada. For 80 years, Nature Canada has helped protect over 110 million acres of parks and wildlife areas in Canada and countless species. Today, Nature Canada represents a network of over 130,000 members and supporters and more than 1,000 nature organizations.
Q. Can you share a recent success story or project related to biodiversity in which your organization has been involved?
A. Nature Canada and its partners have been working for years to see the release of the federal 2030 Nature Strategy, a vital road map for halting and reversing nature loss in Canada. The work began in April 2022, when we organized a conference on the subject. We followed that up late in the year with our NatureBus Tour, which collected messages of support from people all across Canada. The messages were delivered to Prime Minister Trudeau at Montreal’s 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (“COP 15”); the prime minister quoted from several of them in his opening address to the conference.
There was another busy eighteen months of advocacy, engagement and working with the government… and finally it happened! In June of 2024, the federal government released the 2030 Nature Strategy and Accountability Bill. The bill is a necessary part of the package: it will keep governments on track and answerable for progress (or lack thereof) towards the targets set by the Strategy. Now Nature Canada is working to make sure that bill becomes law.
Q. What key challenges does your organization face in advocating for biodiversity protection and sustainable practices?
A. These are tough days, with scientist’s warnings about the rate of the earth’s warming, reports of alarming loss of global biodiversity, the political situation on both sides of the border, and affordability issues at home. People feel overwhelmed and sometimes demoralized. Nature Canada is working hard to reorient people’s psychological compass so that it points toward hope and action. Our programs tap into the power of citizens and local groups, whose collective work across the country can help address even the biggest issues like climate change. On the advocacy side, we want decision-makers to realize that the public is still very supportive of protection of nature, despite the preoccupation with pocketbook issues.
Q. How does your organization engage with communities and other stakeholders in biodiversity conservation efforts?
A. Nature Canada is a nationwide community of 250,000 individual supporters and 1300 nature organizations. We can only do our work by collaborating with Indigenous groups, local organizations, and communities across Canada. Our Nature-Based Climate Solutions campaign works with municipalities and organizations across Canada to defend and restore natural areas that both capture carbon and also protect us from climate change impacts. Our “NatureHood” program works with twenty local partners to connect kids, families, newcomers, and marginalized communities to nearby nature. We have a wage subsidy program called “Work to Grow,” which helps create jobs for BIPOC youth (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) in the nature community. Our “Bird Friendly Cities” program certifies municipalities that are working to make their communities as bird-friendly as possible. We support Indigenous conservation across the country through our collaboration with partners such as the Cree Nation, the Six Nations of the Grand River, and Sakitawak Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA).
All our work depends on community involvement and the help of thousands of partners, small and large, across Canada.
Q. What is one thing your organization believes needs to happen to stop biodiversity loss?
A. Nature Canada strongly believes strongly in the power of nature lovers as nature advocates. All across the country, people are working hard to protect and restore nature. They are birders, canoeists and naturalists; they work for land trusts, trail associations, wildlife centres and citizen science groups; they spend every hour they can on the land or water. But we’d love to see more of them engaging directly with decision-makers (local, provincial and federal politicians). Large-scale change will only happen when ordinary nature lovers become advocates and voice their opinions to elected officials. That’s how democracy works… and how we make progress in halting and reversing nature loss.
Q. Please share any calls to action that you would like to extend to caucus members.
A. We have several urgent calls to action that need your support:
End the Extinction- Populations of Canada’s most endangered species have declined by more than 50 percent over the last 50 years. Add your voice for nature now by sending a personal letter to the Prime Minister, Environment Minister, Oceans Minister, and your local MP.
Logging Emissions- The federal government portrays logging as carbon neutral, but it’s actually the third biggest polluting sector in Canada. Tell your MP there’s no place for climate polluters to hide in Canada!
RCEN supports ENGOs and individuals by providing valuable networking, communications, and resource-sharing services. From coast to coast, we collaborate on bold, positive, and future-focused solutions to the climate crisis. Our Biodiversity Caucus, in particular, plays a pivotal role in linking local and global efforts to protect and enhance biodiversity. By joining the Biodiversity Caucus, you can directly contribute to implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), raising awareness, building capacity, and encouraging proactive action.
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