Wildlife Conservation Society Canada

New report shows Canada’s trees in growing trouble

Lynsey Grosfield — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 01:39:00 GMT

Almost one-quarter of tree species now at risk

Photo: Swamp cottonwood by Matt Reala (iNaturalist).

Almost one in four Canadian tree species is now at risk in Canada according to a new assessment by the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada as part of its ongoing SHAPE of Nature initiative to track the health of Canada’s wildlife and wild places.

“For a country so closely identified with forests, this is alarming news,” says Dan Kraus who led the assessment for Wildlife Conservation Society Canada using data from NatureServe Canada and the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Threats to trees ranging from introduced pests and diseases to the rapidly growing impacts of climate change and land development are rapidly reshaping the diversity of tree species in Canada’s forests. Of the 57 tree species at risk in Canada, half are also considered to be of global conservation concern.

Whether it is white ash in urban forests that are declining because of the introduced emerald ash borer, the loss of forests in southern Ontario that once supported black gum and cucumber tree, or high-alpine Yukon lodgepole and whitebark pine that are being squeezed out of the landscape by climate change, threats to trees are widespread and growing.

“Trees are the foundation of forests and many other ecosystems, providing food, shelter and nesting or denning sites for wildlife. Losing the diversity of trees is devastating for the ecosystems and the species that depend on them. In less than one generation we’re seeing the richness and diversity of Canada’s trees slipping away,” Kraus explains.

“We released these results on the International Day of Forests to help raise awareness about the plight of Canada’s trees,” Kraus points out. “There are still many actions we can all take to help protect the diversity of Canada’s trees – from increasing the diversity of species in tree planting projects to stopping the spread of invasive species to identifying Key Biodiversity Areas that harbor our most imperiled trees.”

Some of these at risk trees exist in only small pockets of Canada, such as Pacific Bayberry or Murray's Birch. With 234 species of trees, Canada has rich arboreal diversity but this diversity has taken an especially hard hit in places like southern Ontario and southern BC where forest clearing has left only tattered patches of woodlands. These are also some of the most “tree diverse” regions of the country.

“Trees are important to people in a multitude of ways beyond just being a source of products like maple syrup or lumber,” Kraus points out. “They cool our urban areas, clean our air, filter our water and stabilize our soils. Just as importantly, being in the presence of trees makes us healthier both physically and mentally as a number of studies have now shown.”

“For a country with a maple leaf on its flag, we have to do a better job of standing by our trees,” Kraus concludes.

Background

How can we better protect Canada’s trees?

There are lots of ways we can help trees.

Identifying and recognizing the habitats of rare trees and supporting conservation and stewardship efforts in these places including through the Key Biodiversity Areas program.
Replanting a wide variety of native species can help us build back beneficial tree cover everywhere from urban centres to farms.
Supporting work to collect genetic material from individual trees that are more resistant to pests and pathogens can set the stage for reintroductions of species that are currently being lost, like ash or American chestnut.
And finally, we need to start thinking about how to help trees adapt to climate change, including by planting species outside their existing ranges and protecting climate refugia areas.

A list of specific measures is included in the assessment.

Resources

Read more about the State of Canada’s Trees.

Interview opportunities

Dan Kraus, Director of National Conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
Cell: 647-299-2425
dkraus@wcs.org

Press and media contact

Lynsey Grosfield, Conservation Communications Manager, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, lgrosfield@wcs.org

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada’s mission is to save wildlife and wild places through science, conservation action, education, and by inspiring people to value nature. WCS Canada plays a unique role in the conservation landscape of Canada. We work at the nexus of biodiversity, climate change, and health in priority landscapes where we have had a long-term field presence, and where there is great potential for durable conservation gains. We have strategic national programs to complement and expand our geographically focused work that addresses issues of Canadian and global concern such as Key Biodiversity Areas, climate change, and mentoring the next generation of conservation scientists. WCS Canada is a member of the global Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) working across the globe in more than 60 countries to save wildlife and wild places.

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A tiny natural treasure buried deep beneath a mountain

Lynsey Grosfield — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 19:26:00 GMT

In Banff National Park, Castleguard Cave becomes one of the first sites in Alberta to be recognized as a globally significant Key Biodiversity Area (KBA).

Researchers exploring the cave. Image: Colin Magee

(Banff, January 30, 2023) — Deep in a remote cave system in Banff National Park is a tiny, largely transparent creature that looks something like a miniscule shrimp. Despite its tiny size, this freshwater amphipod crustacean, known as the Castleguard Cave Amphipod (Stygobromus canadensis), has been very influential in driving the process of designating the entire 21-kilometre long Castleguard Cave System as a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA). And that’s because this amphipod occurs nowhere else in the world.

Scientists still don’t know a great deal about this particular amphipod, which has somehow survived for millennia in this cold, nutrient poor and frequently flooded environment, but its uniqueness made this site a prime candidate for KBA status. It is not just the rarity of this species that is drawing conservation interest to Canada’s largest known cave system, however. It is also what it tells us about life in an underground chamber that is believed to have remained intact and ice free for more than 700,000 years. Formed by meltwaters from the Columbia Icefield glaciers that lie above the cave, this subterranean habitat gives us a window into life before the last ice age.

The KBA program works with governments, local conservation organizations, citizen scientists, and Indigenous Nations to collaboratively identify the places that are most critical to conserve to avoid losing a species or ecosystem from Canada or the world. Sites are recognized based on meeting strict quantitative criteria, whether that is related to the significant presence of highly unique species such as the Castleguard amphipod or the retention of large, intact areas of habitat that support a wide variety of species. Because KBAs are identified through a scientifically rigorous process, they are a broadly trusted tool for ramping up our conservation efforts in the face of accelerating climate change and disappearing wildlife. While KBAs are not designed to provide any legal protection, they are an excellent way of identifying places in protected and unprotected areas where conservation and stewardship efforts can have a large impact on halting and reversing the loss of nature. Identification of the Castleguard Cave system as a KBA, for example, can help ensure that greater attention is paid to a unique underworld that may see more flooding from glacial meltwaters due to climate change or other changes.

With more than 70 sites now officially listed as KBAs across Canada and more than 850 more under consideration, this program is picking up momentum just as Canada signs on to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework following the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Montreal last month.

Parks Canada administers one of the finest and most extensive systems of natural and cultural heritage places in the world. Castleguard Cave is located in a special preservation zone in Banff National Park, the highest level of protection offered in national parks, and cave exploration in a national park is illegal without a special permit. Castleguard Cave is in a restricted area 20 km from the nearest road and can only be explored in winter. It has numerous unique characteristics, from the tiny Castleguard Cave amphipod found nowhere else on earth, to highly unusual, nearly cubical “cave pearls” found in few other places in the world.

The Castleguard Cave amphipod is found in this site alone. Image: Greg Horne

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada scientist, Michael Rudy, worked with Parks Canada to develop the KBA proposal for the Castleguard Cave KBA and can speak to the process of how other exceptional sites for biodiversity are being recognized across Alberta and Saskatchewan. Wildlife Conservation Society Canada scientist, Peter Soroye, can speak to the purpose and achievements of the KBA program and how it is helping to conserve unique places like the Castleguard Cave across Canada.

Watch this video of Parks Canada Species of Concern Ecologist, Anne Forshner, speaking on the Castleguard Cave KBA and why Parks Canada is excited about the KBA designation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17iF6fONlrEYJKO1rFZvgIK01FY_Ul-W5/view?usp=sharing

Learn more about the Castleguard Cave KBA at the KBA Canada website here: https://kbacanada.org/site/?SiteCode=AB130

Key facts 

Castleguard Cave is a limestone cave located in Banff National Park, AB. Featuring over 21.3 km of surveyed passages, it is currently Canada's longest known cave system. It is believed that the cave's interior has remained intact and ice-free for at least 700,000 years. It is the only known cave in the world to be found under glacial ice and the best-known Canadian cave internationally.
The Castleguard Cave Amphipod (Stygobromus canadensis) is an entirely blind and unpigmented freshwater amphipod crustacean found only in the subterranean environment of Castleguard Cave, where it is believed to have survived since before the glaciation of the surrounding landscape during the last ice age.
Apart from its unique biological diversity, the cave also includes one of only five known examples in the world of highly unusual nearly cubical 'cave pearls'.
KBAs provide an opportunity to collaborate with experts, traditional knowledge-holders, citizen scientists and Indigenous groups to recognize some of the most critical natural areas in the province that allow biodiversity to persist on the planet and raise awareness of these unique species and ecosystems.

Interview opportunities 

Anne Forshner, Species of Concern Ecologist, Parks Canada, LLYKMedia@pc.gc.ca
Michael Rudy, Alberta and Saskatchewan Regional KBA Coordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
Peter Soroye, KBA Assessment and Outreach Coordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada

Press and media contact

Lynsey Grosfield, Conservation Communications Manager, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, canadamedia@wcs.org

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada 

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The door to a better biodiversity future is now open

Lynsey Grosfield — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 22:50:00 GMT

The closing plenary of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, CoP15, in Montreal, December 2022.

Photo: UN Biodiversity

Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations produce a solid deal that lays the groundwork for more ambitious efforts to address the biodiversity crisis in Canada and around the world.

By Justina Ray, WCS Canada President and Senior Scientist

Negotiations on a new global deal to save nature reached their tipping point at just about the same time that Lionel Messi was racing past defenders in the World Cup final. But while Argentina’s victory caught the world’s attention, the win for nature that resulted in Montreal was really the much bigger deal.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at the 15^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (“CoP15”) for Biodiversity held in Montreal earlier this month started out with very much the same kind of coin flip odds as the soccer shootout between France and Argentina.

WCS Canada President and Senior Scientist Dr. Justina Ray was a member of the Canadian delegation to the biodiversity talks and carefully tracked the difficult work of bringing 188 parties to consensus on a plan to protect nature.

No one could predict how things were going to end coming into these long-delayed negotiations with a text full of provisional language that had to be agreed on by every country in attendance. But remarkably, 188 Parties reached consensus on the new framework that moves the goalposts significantly on addressing the growing global wave of wildlife extinctions and ecosystem losses – including right here in Canada.

Having witnessed the often-tense negotiations that led up to the agreement, there are many aspects of the final document that I find relatively awe-inspiring. It acknowledges the plight of global biodiversity, the dependence of humans on the biosphere as well as the need for transformative change and a “whole of government” approach to truly protect nature. It includes strong language about the right to a healthy environment, respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, the “full and effective contributions” of women, youth, and Indigenous peoples, inter-generational equity and a welcome emphasis on ecosystems as a key element of biodiversity embedded within several targets.

That is no small piece of work when you consider the vastly different conditions and worldviews of the countries involved – from powerful Western states to tiny island nations and everything in between. The 23 targets of the framework that support the overall mission “to take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss” by 2030 collectively provide a strong directive for immediate action. These actions include protection of 30% of land and inland waters and 30% of marine and coastal areas; restoring and halting the loss of areas important to biodiversity and of high ecological integrity; and addressing key drivers of biodiversity loss (land- and sea-use change, pollution, invasive alien species, climate change and ocean acidification).

Another set of targets deals with many aspects of implementation, including finance and resource mobilization, full integration of biodiversity into policies and regulations, addressing destructive financial subsidies and the need for business disclosure of “risks, dependencies and impacts” on biodiversity. And it all comes with a monitoring framework with “headline” indicators to track progress of goals and targets.

Compared to the previous global agreement to protect nature, the hope is that measurable targets, an accompanying monitoring framework, and enhanced attention to implementation – along with increasingly strong scientific understanding of the urgency of the biodiversity crisis, will propel individual nations to turn their promises into action.

Arriving at this solid, if imperfect, outcome involved much more than the work of government negotiators. WCS Canada, for example, played important roles both inside and outside the official negotiations. As an official member of the Canadian delegation, I sat in on negotiating sessions and provided support to Canada’s leadership role as host of CoP15. As part of the large contingent of Canadian civil society organizations at the meeting, we shared our understanding of the implications of each of the many, many drafts of the main agreement and side agreements through a conservation science lens.

Peter Soroye, WCS Canada's Key Biodiversity Areas Assessment and Outreach Coordinator, addresses the need for Indigenous collaboration in identifying Key Biodiversity Areas at the CoP.

Photo: Lynsey Grosfield/WCS Canada

WCS Canada also made a significant splash with presentations on peatlands and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). These were a golden opportunity to build understanding of new conservation opportunities and, in the case of peatlands, to re-emphasize the link between biodiversity protection and climate action. Having representatives from the global WCS team – from Colombia to Congo – at the negotiations also helped to bring a broad perspective to the work of explaining what needs to be done to protect biodiversity.

Was what was achieved in Montreal enough? In many ways, it has left us in the same position as Argentina at the end of extra time. We have clawed our way back into the game, but we need to do more to win. Not enough accountability is built into the framework and we need more clearly-defined milestones to measure and ensure progress in the next decade. Importantly, even with this being a key focus in Montreal, there is still insufficient funding from developed nations for the rest of the world to support implementation. We need to remind ourselves that the “cost” of helping to protect biodiversity in other parts of the world is a small price to pay for keeping our world liveable and a sliver of what we spend on things like armaments that often find their way into conflicts driven by ecosystem breakdown. Our recent pandemic experience is, of course, another stark reminder about the huge costs of compromised ecosystems.

For all of us at WCS Canada, this agreement feeds directly into the work we have been doing across Canada to change the conservation paradigm. Our work as scientists on ensuring globally important ecosystems, like boreal forests and peatlands, maintain their high ecological integrity is now a perfect launching point for efforts to formally protect areas rich in biodiversity and carbon – particularly through support of Indigenous-led conservation and policy reform. Our efforts to better understand how the Arctic environment is being transformed by climate change will set the stage for strong and proactive protection measures. Our efforts to better understand the needs of key species like bats, caribou, wolverine and lake sturgeon will help change the current negative course for these and other ecosystem- and cultural “keystone” animals. Our KBA program is identifying important places for conservation action and our new SHAPE of Nature website is providing information on conservation indicators for the public and decision-makers.

There is a lot of work ahead of us at WCS Canada. We hope you can continue to support us to turn this opportunity into action for nature. The door to a better future is now open.

Lake Sturgeon in deeper trouble than previously thought

Lynsey Grosfield — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 21:59:00 GMT

Northern Ontario is one of the last strongholds for a species now considered endangered worldwide

15 December 2022, Montreal — As CoP15 negotiations continue in Montreal around actions to address the global biodiversity crisis, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has issued some bad news on one particular species. In a recent update, the IUCN has announced a change to the global Red List status of lake sturgeon, from “least concern” to “endangered.” This puts the lake sturgeon in the same category as many better-known threatened wildlife such as the mountain gorilla, sea otter and African savannah elephant.

Learn more on SHAPE of Nature

This jump in the odds of extinction for one of the planet’s oldest fish species is a reminder of how much is at stake in the negotiations in Montreal. For lake sturgeon, the rivers in the far north in Ontario may hold some of their last best chances for survival. Assessed as a species of “special concern” in the far north in Ontario, Lake Sturgeon thrive in intact rivers flowing into Hudson and James Bay. Living here are some of the last remaining abundant populations of Lake Sturgeon globally.

However, these same rivers may be impacted by new mines, roads or hydropower developments and without care and planning we could see a similar slide toward extinction for Lake Sturgeon in northern Ontario, and the rest of Canada where populations remain.

According to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), the Canadian range of lake sturgeon stretches from the North and South Saskatchewan rivers in Alberta in the west, to the St. Lawrence River estuary in the east, and from various rivers that empty into Hudson Bay in the north to several boundary waters (e.g., Rainy River, Great Lakes) in the south.

The recent update the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has now classified 221 species found in Canada as at risk of globally extinction, and an additional 107 species as ‘near threatened’. WCS Canada has been undertaking field-based research on Lake Sturgeon in Ontario for a number of years and is working closely with the Moose Cree First Nation on stewardship efforts for the ancient fish. WCS Canada is working to conserve Canada’s Red List species across the country in our field programs and through the efforts of KBA Canada to identify and map the habitat for our most threatened species.

Interview opportunities

Dan Kraus, Director of National Conservation, is an expert on endangered species and can speak to the sudden change in global status for Lake Sturgeon and what this tells us about our failing efforts to protect species at risk and how these need to be improved as well as about WCS Canada’s efforts to ensure survival of healthy populations in Ontario.
Claire Farrell, Associate Conservation Scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, works with our Learning for Lake Sturgeon program, which is in partnership with the Moose Cree First Nation, and can speak to the science behind lake sturgeon conservation, as well as community stewardship of lake sturgeon populations.

Media contact

Lynsey Grosfield, Conservation Communications Manager, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada lgrosfield@wcs.org, (647) 372-0309

Resources

Enclosures

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

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CoP15 Event: Key Biodiversity Areas - a tool for effective biodiversity conservation in Canada

Lynsey Grosfield — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 20:43:00 GMT

This panel event brought together leaders and partners of the KBA Canada initiative to demonstrate how this collaborative project is assembling biodiversity data and knowledge to identify all Key Biodiversity Areas in Canada, and presented the progress made to date. Panelists described the organization of KBA Canada, collaborations with Indigenous partners across the country, how the project is catalyzing the assemblage and organization of biodiversity data in Canada, Canadian leadership in identifying KBAs for ecological integrity, and how Canada is sharing tools and approaches globally on KBAs. Discussion was interspersed by video from partners across the country, describing the local importance of KBAs they are working on.

The event was held in the Canada Pavilion at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, CoP15, in Montreal on December 13th, 2022, and organized but Wildlife Conservation Society Canada and NatureServe Canada. WCS Canada panelists included Justina Ray, Peter Soroye, Chloé Debyser, and Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne.

CoP15 Event: From Peatlands to the Ocean, a Global Opportunity in Canada

Lynsey Grosfield — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 20:31:00 GMT

The 90 minute panel brought together Indigenous leaders, scientists and conservation experts from Canada’s Hudson Bay Lowland and surrounding sea. Panelists spoke to their homelands, irrecoverable carbon stores of the Hudson Bay Lowland, the looming threat of Ring of Fire mining, global stopovers for North America’s birds, tales of living with polar bears and Indigenous-led conservation in the sea.

Dr. Lorna Harris, Forests, Peatlands, and Climate lead, presented on behalf of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada.

Media Availability: What Canada can do at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) to address the nature crisis

Lynsey Grosfield — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 19:47:00 GMT

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS) Canada scientists seeing this crisis on the ground while working on solutions from coast-to-coast-to-coast

(MONTREAL, December 6, 2022) — The numbers are stark: up to one million species at risk of extinction worldwide, natural ecosystems that have lost half their global area, the biomass of wild animals plunging by 82 per cent, all according to the landmark report released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in 2019.

Canada, despite its vast wild spaces, is far from immune from this biodiversity crisis. Our national list of species at risk has doubled since it was first created in 2002 and few listed species are on the road to recovery. A newly released report on the status of wild species in Canada has identified thousands of species that could disappear under the status quo. In our southern most populated regions, wetlands and woodlands have been reduced to small fragments, while resource development continues to spread deeper and deeper into more northern regions threatening to impact some of the planet’s largest and most intact forests and peatlands.

WCS Canada is a leader in developing science-based responses to this crisis, from the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) to providing technical support to land use planning and species recovery. Our scientists are actively working on ways to protect vulnerable wolverines and lake sturgeon, save bats from a deadly disease, and to reduce the impact of growing ship noise on Arctic marine mammals.

Our research takes place on Indigenous lands and waters. We are committed to reconciliation through research and conservation of wildlife, lands, and waters with Indigenous Peoples, and recognize and support that Indigenous-led conservation is one of the most effective tools in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate change.

Canada has a critically important role to play in addressing the global biodiversity crisis because of its huge land mass, tens of thousands of lakes and rivers, the world’s longest ocean coastline, provides breeding habitat for billions of migratory birds, and jurisdiction over parts of three oceans. But, the fact that this country still has globally important intact wild areas is really a result of Indigenous stewardship, and the sheer size rather of the land on which we live, rather than forward-looking planning from our governments as we continue to develop through the scarce remaining spaces remaining for nature

WCS scientists are increasingly seeing the impacts of a changing climate on wildlife and wild spaces across Canada and we are working hard to ensure that climate solutions and our transition to a green economy are developed with the least possible impact on wild areas that are critically important for carbon storage and sequestration. A number of WCS scientists are available to comment on what needs to be achieved at the COP and how Canada can respond to the biodiversity crisis that they see accelerating here:

Dr. Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne, Key Biodiversity Areas Director, 514.966.6047, craudsepp@wcs.org, WCS Canada’s Director of Key Biodiversity Areas is based in Montreal, and is bilingual in English and French. She leads a national initiative to identify sites that are crucial to the retention and recovery of biodiversity. Her previous research and consulting work focused on ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, and social-ecological resilience, across Canada, in Latin America, Sweden, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia. Ciara served as the coordinator of the Sub-global Assessment Working Group of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.
Dr. Lorna Harris, Forests, Peatlands, and Climate Change Lead, 514.577.3390, lharris@wcs.org, Lorna is an ecosystem scientist with an interdisciplinary skill set, working from the local to global scale to assess the ways ecosystem structure and function may be impacted by global climate warming and other disturbances. As a dedicated research scientist with an industry and policy background, she has worked to improve our scientific understanding of wetlands and peatland ecosystems for over 17 years in both the UK and Canada. Dr. Harris has extensive research experience in a range of wetland, peatland, and forest ecosystems across Canada, including the Hudson Bay Lowland where she completed her PhD research. She has published several papers on peatland carbon cycling and greenhouse gas fluxes. Lorna has also worked to create stronger links in science and public policy for peatlands in both the UK and in Canada, with a recent paper identifying research and policy gaps for peatlands across Canada.
Dan Kraus, National Director of Conservation, 647.299.2425, dkraus@wcs.org. Dan Kraus has over 25 years of conservation experience in the public, private and NGO sectors and is an expert on Canadian biodiversity and conservation. Dan has authored reports on topics ranging from Canada’s ‘crisis’ ecoregions to the natural capital value of forests. Dan is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and Canada’s Nature Advisory Committee. He leads WCS Canada efforts to report on biodiversity and conservation in Canada through WCS Canada’s new SHAPE of Nature website.

WCS Canada President Dr. Justina Ray will be part of the official Canadian delegation at COP 15, where she will be contributing to Canada’s leadership in developing ambitious new goals and targets for the Convention on Biodiversity.

Check out the Wildlife Conservation Society News Statement from the opening of the COP.

Press and media contact

Lynsey Grosfield, Conservation Communications Manager, lgrosfield@wcs.org, (647) 372-0309

***

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

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The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal has shared public domain images and b-roll of the event:

Video: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10023453
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/150988932@N04/albums

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada’s Justina Ray wins 2022 Conservation Leadership Award

Lynsey Grosfield — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:12:00 GMT

SEATTLE—The Wilburforce Foundation announced today it is presenting one of four 2022 Conservation Leadership Awards (CLA) to Dr. Justina Ray — President and Senior Scientist of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada — for her ongoing work on science-based conservation policy and partnerships with First Nations across northern Canada.

“Justina sets a powerful example for bringing science to policymakers in compelling, accessible ways that leads to conservation of critical areas,” said Paul Beaudet, executive director of the Wilburforce Foundation. “Her humble leadership has made a difference in the literal landscape of the northern regions and across Canada.”

Established in 2000, the Conservation Leadership Award recognizes groundbreaking leaders protecting wildlands and wildlife in North America. The CLA comes with a cash award for both the individual winner and their organization they represent.

Dr. Ray has led WCS Canada since its founding in 2004 as a Canadian organization. with a long affiliation with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Global Conservation Program, starting as an intern in 1987, followed by years of research in both African and Asian tropical forests. Since being established, WCS Canada, has become a leading resource for conservation efforts that have impacted millions of square kilometers across the country.

WCS Canada strongly supports Indigenous-led conservation, and Dr. Ray has been a strong advocate for conservation through reconciliation.

In recent years, WCS Canada science has had positive impacts on land-use planning throughout western Canada, as well as in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario, Manitoba, and Quebec, where peatlands hold critical storehouses of carbon, which if developed could release significant amounts of carbon and methane, contributing to consequential climate-warming.

A powerful voice for conservation in Canada, Dr. Ray served for almost a decade as a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), responsible for assessments for terrestrial mammals, and has been on numerous governmental science advisory panels.

Her vision and service also extend across the globe, including membership on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Taskforce on Biodiversity and Protected Areas. Additionally she’s worked with the Canadian delegation to the Convention of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which supporters hope will culminate in a successful and transformative new agreement for nature and people at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in December.

The author or editor of three books, Dr. Ray has also contributed significantly to research and conservation of wolverine and caribou, while also mentoring the next generation of conservation scientists as an adjunct professor at both Trent University and University of Toronto.

“I am humbled to receive this recognition of my work, but more importantly, recognition of the work of our amazing team at Wildlife Conservation Society Canada,” Dr. Ray said. “We’ve outgrown the muddy boots we started with almost two decades ago, becoming a force for conservation action home and abroad, with more than 50 staff across the country, a growing community of research fellows, and a devoted network of thousands of regular Canadians who support our science simply because they love wildlife and wild places. We are also part of a powerful global family of WCS country programs with a shared and wonderful purpose: to continue setting the bar for wildlife science, conservation action, and education.”

“This is a critical moment for nature conservation, and a critical moment for us as a species to reconcile our fractured relationship with the natural world. I am grateful to the Wilburforce Foundation for helping elevate what we at WCS Canada — and all the other awardees — are doing for nature. We all do what we do out of love for our communities and for this planet, and it’s that love that will sustain us, and make us successful,” she said.

About WCS Canada

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About Wilburforce Foundation

Wilburforce Foundation is a private philanthropic organization that supports land, water and wildlife conservation efforts in western North America. We invest in natural and social sciences to advance conservation, working with our grantees to defend and use policies that protect our natural world.

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Contact:

Chris Nelson
cnelson@pyramidcommunications.com
206-940-1605 (mobile)

Lynsey Grosfield
Conservation Communications Manager, WCS Canada
lgrosfield@wcs.org
(647) 372-0309 (mobile)

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada

New report shows Canada’s trees in growing trouble

Almost one-quarter of tree species now at risk

Background

There are lots of ways we can help trees.

Resources

Interview opportunities

Press and media contact

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

A tiny natural treasure buried deep beneath a mountain

In Banff National Park, Castleguard Cave becomes one of the first sites in Alberta to be recognized as a globally significant Key Biodiversity Area (KBA).

Key facts

Interview opportunities

Press and media contact

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

The door to a better biodiversity future is now open

﻿Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations produce a solid deal that lays the groundwork for more ambitious efforts to address the biodiversity crisis in Canada and around the world.

Lake Sturgeon in deeper trouble than previously thought

Northern Ontario is one of the last strongholds for a species now considered endangered worldwide

Interview opportunities

Media contact

Resources

Enclosures

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada

CoP15 Event: Key Biodiversity Areas - a tool for effective biodiversity conservation in Canada

CoP15 Event: From Peatlands to the Ocean, a Global Opportunity in Canada

Media Availability: What Canada can do at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) to address the nature crisis

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS) Canada scientists seeing this crisis on the ground while working on solutions from coast-to-coast-to-coast

Press and media contact

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada’s Justina Ray wins 2022 Conservation Leadership Award

About WCS Canada

About Wilburforce Foundation

Key facts 

Interview opportunities 

About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada 

Convention on Biological Diversity negotiations produce a solid deal that lays the groundwork for more ambitious efforts to address the biodiversity crisis in Canada and around the world.