Key Biodiversity Areas for Land Use Planning in Manitoba and Newfoundland

Summary

Wildlife and ecosystems in Canada and around the world continue to decline with negative repercussions for our biodiversity, which is essential to maintain a healthy and sustainable life. One of the key challenges of conservation is knowing where to invest to ensure that resources are directed at the most important and urgent places. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) represent an international standardized approach to identify the most crucial sites for wildlife and ecosystems by providing a reliable tool for governments, NGOs, industry, and communities to effectively identify and prioritize sites that will contribute the most to conserving biodiversity, while guiding effective land use planning and sustainable development. WCS Canada has been leading KBA work in Canada for two years, establishing strong partnerships and expertise across the country, and identifying more than 250 new KBAs to date. There remain, however, a few jurisdictions where regional processes need to be developed to identify KBAs, including Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. WCS Canada intends to identify all KBAs in these two provinces in the next 12 months, where the provincial governments, stakeholders, and experts are supportive and ready to participate.