Nature Canada

Protecting Nature Depends on You!

Stephen Hazell
Director of Conservation
and Legal Counsel

Here’s an observation from someone who has been a nature activist and lawyer for over thirty years.

My experience is that governments and industry need to be convinced to protect nature, and that usually only happens when Canadians raise their voices and demand action.  Why? Every government is subject to intense political pressures to address short-term crises whereas protecting nature is a longer-term concern often ignored for lack of an immediate crisis. And industrial companies often focus on quarterly financial results and quick returns on investment to shareholders, which sometimes leads to short-cuts harmful to nature.

Nature Canada is one way in which your voice can join those of other Canadians to achieve positive results for nature.  Frankly, Nature Canada’s effectiveness as that collective voice for nature depends on you.

My conclusion: your gifts to Nature Canada have a tremendous impact in protecting nature because they strengthen our collective voice so that governments and industry are convinced to take action.

Consider these questions:

  • Jim Evans (a), Fauna and Flora, fb2Would the federal government be talking seriously about preventing oil spills in the Salish Sea if, together with First Nations and other nature groups, Nature Canada had not intervened in the Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain pipeline/tanker project hearings?
  • Would any of the 1 million hectares of federally managed prairie grasslands supporting dozens of species at risk slated for transfer to the private sector be considered for protection without nature groups such as Nature Canada speaking up?
  • Would a national urban park in the Rouge Valley be under consideration if nature groups such as Nature Canada had not demanded one?
  • Would the federal government have enacted the Species at Risk Act, ramped up funding for recovery plans and protection of critical habitat without the advocacy of Nature Canada and other nature groups?
  • Would the federal government have launched the $252 million National Conservation Plan in 2014 without the advocacy of the Green Budget Coalition led by Nature Canada?

My answer to all of these questions? No, I don’t think so! 

Which brings it back to you.

Your financial support to Nature Canada has played had a crucial role in achieving many victories for nature.  But these victories take time. Intervening in a regulatory process for a oil pipeline/tanker or mining project can take several years, while establishing a National Wildlife Area or National Park can take a decade or more.

This fall, Nature Canada and BC Nature are standing up for Orcas and Marbled Murrelets as intervenors in the public hearings for the Trans Mountain pipeline/tanker project.  Key threatened prairie grasslands must be protected as National Wildlife Areas before management is transferred to the private sector.  And finally, all Canadians need to be convinced to vote for nature in the upcoming federal election.

Your gifts to Nature Canada will help us all be a stronger voice for nature.

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Canada’s wilderness is the world’s envy. It’s our duty to keep our true north strong and green.

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