biodiversity

A major UN conference on biodiversity will get underway in Montreal on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, with a lofty goal to get every country to agree to protect almost one-third of the world's land and oceans before the end of this decade. 

The outcome of the global gathering in Montreal may be our last best hope for nature, writes Dan Kraus.

As the United Nations biodiversity conference draws near, dozens of scientists from 13 countries are calling for protection of the world’s waterlogged, carbon-rich peatlands, a quarter of which exist within Canada’s borders and are threatened by development.

Canadian scientists are launching efforts to use satellites as benevolent eyes in the sky to monitor whales and other at-risk ocean creatures and keep them safe.

British Columbia has asked First Nations if they want old-growth forests set aside from logging, allowing time for long-term planning of conservation and sustainable development, but it has yet to fund the process on a large scale, advocates say. 

The Manitoba water strategy, released earlier this month, is a far-reaching document covering conservation, climate resilience, water scarcity, biodiversity and infrastructure.

Scientists have long warned that climate change and other threats will require relocating some endangered species outside their historic ranges. Now, U.S. officials are proposing rules that would enable them to use this new — and potentially controversial — conservation tool.

Montreal's mayor is launching a challenge to other cities to commit to protecting biodiversity as it prepares to host a major United Nations conference next month.

Most Canadians say they want provincial and territorial governments to match the federal pledge to protect 30 per cent of land and ocean in Canada by 2030, writes Sandra Schwartz of CPAWS. 

Once-in-a-decade plans to protect the natural world and halt its destruction will be decided in Montreal in December.

A new research initiative is working on a national assessment of the “blue carbon” storage capacity of Canada’s salt marshes, seagrass meadows and kelp forests to fight against climate change.

The huge scale of human-driven loss of species demands urgent action, say the world’s leading scientists.

Industrial farming practices like pesticides can harm native bees, contributing to their global decline. UBC master's student Jennifer Lipka is looking at how to make farms more bee-friendly. The stakes are high: without pollinators, everything from food security to native plants is in danger. 

The U.K. is leading the way in vertical farming, a more sustainable way to grow herbs, salads and soft fruits year-round.

Greenpeace activists blocked the street outside Steven Guilbeault's constituency office Friday in downtown Montreal, where the federal environment minister — once a Greenpeace activist himself — will help host the UN's biodiversity summit later this year.