What
Nature-Based Solutions
Nature-based solutions (NbS) refer to solutions to the extinction crisis, climate crisis, and issues related to human health and the economy via protecting and stewarding nature.
Why NbS?
The concept of nature-based solutions (NbS) emerged in response to the growing extinction and climate crises and a mounting awareness of the links that exist between human systems and natural systems.
With numerous studies and ample emerging research highlighting the many benefits of healthy, functioning ecosystems, it is now clear that protecting nature presents us with a powerful and cost-effective way to create net positive impacts for biodiversity, economies, and societies everywhere.
Our aim is to leverage NbS to protect nature in ways that likewise foster prosperity for people and help Canada meaningfully make progress towards its 30% by 2030 protected areas targets.
Endangered Ecosystems
We use a science-based approach and the best available research to prioritize the most endangered ecosystems for protection.
Protected Areas
To protect endangered ecosystems, our ultimate goal is to help establish new protected areas by working with land-embedded communities and other key parties so that together, we can realize the power that nature-based solutions can have on fostering prosperity for people and the planet.
Benefits
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Protected areas are not only vital for safeguarding biodiversity from destructive activities but also for drawing down vast amounts of carbon into protected forests, grasslands, and wetlands, working to counteract climate change.
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Protected areas often result in much greater net economic benefits for nearby communities than industrial resource extraction when factoring in such industries as tourism and recreation; real estate; skilled labour attracted by nearby protected areas for recreation and quality of life; recreational and commercial fishing supported by clean water and habitat; non-timber forest products and other natural products like wild mushrooms, salal, berries, and kelp; carbon offsets; and ecosystem services like flood and erosion control, natural sewage treatment, regional climate regulation, and genetic resources.
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Proximity to and immersion in nature is increasingly being recognized as vital for human health. This can provide psychological benefits that impact our physical health; direct physical benefits through plant compounds that we breathe in, which boost our immune systems by scrubbing out pollutants; and a diversity of beneficial microorganisms that benefit us. Nature as a whole is simply vital for our long-term survival.
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