We do know about some of these important places. Almost 600 Important Bird Areas were identified in Canada between 1996 and 2001 and criteria for identifying Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas were first introduced in 2008. There have also been efforts to identify important areas for plants, reptiles, and migratory mammals, and we’ve mapped critical habitat for some species that are listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. But many blank spots on our conservation map remain. 

In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature released a global standard for identifying Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). KBAs are the most important places in the world for wildlife and their habitats. The standard provides criteria on how to identify KBAs that include threatened species, intact ecosystems and important migratory stopover sites. 

These criteria were developed by scientists from around the world, including Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada. Canada was then one of the first countries to begin to identify KBAs that meet the global standard and to develop a national KBA standard. The KBA Canada Coalition of conservation organizations, academic institutions, experts, Indigenous groups and governments is now actively working across most Canada to identify and map these important places.

The results for KBAs are just starting to come in, but there are two important findings that you should know:

The first is that northern Canada has some of the last true wild places left on the planet. Unlike other countries that struggle to find even remnants of intact ecosystems, we will have the challenge of choosing which large and intact ecosystems should be mapped as KBAs in our northern boreal and Arctic. These large, connected ecosystems still support healthy populations of wildlife, and include places like the vast peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands and the mountains of northern B.C. and Yukon. We have a globally unique opportunity to work with Indigenous Peoples in protecting these still wild places.

The second important finding is that there are KBAs for threatened species and ecosystems, and significant stopover sites for migratory animals, across southern Canada. Some of these are even in our largest cities, like the Fraser River delta in Vancouver and the globally rare oak savannah ecosystems you can find in Windsor. I’ve learned that near my home just outside of Guelph, you can find one of Canada’s largest populations of the nationally imperiled eastern green violet. If I drive to the shore of Lake Ontario in nearby Burlington, I can see globally significant winter aggregations of long-tailed ducks. Nature close to home. Nature that is critical for conserving biodiversity in Canada and for the planet.