This week the largest biodiversity conference in the world starts in Montreal. There is a lot at stake.
I’m on the ground doing my best to bring attention to the realities of protecting biodiversity in BC, where the variety of life is more expansive than anywhere else in the country.
Join me for an incredible event where Indigenous panelists fighting to protect biodiversity throughout their territories will describe the challenges that currently exist for that protection and what needs to change. We will explore the opportunities that exist for BC to halt biodiversity loss from an Indigenous rights-based approach.
Date: Dec. 7, 2022, from 11:00-2:00 pm PT Location:Virtual or (on the off-chance you’re in Montreal) in-person at UQAM Pavillon Sherbrooke, 200 Rue Sherbrooke Ouest Amphithéâtre (SH-2800) du pavillon Sherbrooke Montréal, QC H2X 1X5
The panel members include:
Chief Ernest Alfred, who is working to protect marine ecosystems in the Broughton Archipelago
Gwen Bridge of Saddle Lake Cree Nation, who develops relationships that advance reconciliation
Lauren Terbasket from the Okanagan Nation, who is involved in the ongoing process of establishing the nʔaysnúlaʔxʷ (Ashnola) Protected Area
Victoria Watson, a Haudenosaunee and Scottish lawyer working to ensure a new BC biodiversity law enhances Indigenous sovereignty and governance over their territories while safeguarding biodiversity.
BC has more biodiversity than any other province or territory in Canada, yet is also home to the most species at risk. For Canada to meet its biodiversity targets, BC must step up to the plate to increase protection, while ensuring an Indigenous rights-based approach is followed. This event will explore how the current framework for biodiversity protection in BC is failing and how to improve it.
Panel members will discuss Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and how both the provincial and federal governments are slow to get on board with them despite numerous Indigenous Nations wanting to move forward with their protected area proposals. We will discuss efforts to protect marine ecosystems and salmon species relying on healthy and safe habitat.
Let’s use the momentum of this biodiversity summit to get a solid law for BC species. Hope to see you there!
For the wild,
Charlotte Dawe
Conservation and Policy Campaigner
Wilderness Committee
P.S. Can’t make it? Right now is the perfect time to push the BC government towards enacting a biodiversity law for at-risk species. If you haven’t yet, sign our petition and opt-in to our movement! You’ll be joining the expanding network of activists taking action for biodiversity in a way that can't be ignored.
