This year, it also serves as an opportunity to double down on our efforts to protect these vital natural spaces that are disappearing before our eyes.
Swamps, freshwater and saltwater marshes, fens and bogs all play vital roles in our day-to-day lives, providing ecological services, such as flood control and carbon storage, while also supporting food production.
With the droughts, floods, heat waves and storm surges experienced in many parts of Canada last year, the impacts of climate change are more apparent than ever, and the more reliant we become on wetlands for our own protection.
About a third of all of Canada’s plant and wildlife species at risk live in wetlands, and in some cases, rely on them as their only habitat type.
In British Columbia, the Nature Conservancy of Canada has helped to protect almost 3,000 hectares of wetland habitat to date, including the salmon-rearing streams and beaver-engineered ponds on the recently announced Snowshoe Creek Conservation Area in the Bella Coola Valley.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada recently surpassed a milestone, helping conserve over 15 million hectares of lands and waters, 1 million in the last two years alone, doubling the pace of conservation.
There has never been a more important time for nature conservation, especially given Canada’s climate and conservation goals, among them to protect 25 per cent of the country’s lands and waters by 2025.
With 25 per cent of the world’s wetlands, Canada can make a difference on a global scale.