On July 18, 2024, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced $89.1 million for 10 greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects funded through the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund.
Recipient: Métis Nation of Alberta
Approved funding: $4,831,200
Project description: This Indigenous-led project will protect approximately 450 hectares of lands that are at high risk of conversion and support the development of a management plan focusing on improving biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential. The activities will take place in priority habitats, including native grassland, aspen parkland forest, wetlands, and riparian areas.
British Columbia
Recipient: BC Parks Foundation
Approved funding: $37,000,000
Project description: This project will protect approximately 4,000 hectares of private land and implement natural climate solutions, avoiding the conversion of carbon-rich ecosystems across British Columbia. The activities will take place in priority habitats, including grasslands, forests, riparian areas, and wetlands in multiple locations, including Vancouver Island, the Southern Interior, and Northern British Columbia. This will also benefit several species at risk, such as the Salmon species (Chum and Coho), the Marbled Murrelet, the Great Blue Heron, and other migratory birds at risk.
Recipient: Nature Trust of British Columbia
Approved funding: $8,365,375
Project description: This project will secure 552 hectares of carbon-rich ecosystems and provide benefits for multiple species at risk, including the Western Toad, the Grizzly Bear, and the Southern Mountain Caribou, among others. This project will result in the creation of 11 new protected areas, including forest, wetland, and grassland habitats on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the East Kootenays, and in the Cariboo Region. The project will help to mitigate climate change and will provide co-benefits for biodiversity.
Recipient: Nuxalk Nation
Approved funding: $4,455,000
Project description: This Indigenous-led project will protect private land and implement natural climate solutions, avoiding the conversion of carbon-rich ecosystems by halting activities that would result in greenhouse gas emissions, through land acquisition. The activities will take place in priority habitats, including forests in the Great Bear Rainforest near Bella Coola. Species that will benefit include the Marbled Murrelet, the Northern Goshawk, and the Grizzly Bear.
Manitoba
Recipient: Fisher River Cree Nation
Approved funding: $5,192,700
Project description: This Indigenous-led project will focus on preventing land conversion and loss of carbon from peat harvesting in the Interlakes region of Manitoba. The project will take place in carbon-rich peatlands and will provide connectivity within a migratory bird flyway. The project will help mitigate climate change and provide co-benefits for biodiversity and human well-being while also supporting Indigenous reconciliation.
Recipient: Manitoba Habitat Conservancy
Approved funding: $6,152,640
Project description: This project focuses on securing approximately 1,200 hectares of privately held carbon- and biodiversity-rich lands. The activities will take place in priority habitats, including grasslands, forests, riparian areas, and wetlands. The project will help to mitigate climate change and will provide co-benefits for biodiversity.
New Brunswick
Recipient: Community Forests International
Approved funding: $9,000,000
Project description: This project will implement natural climate solutions by focusing on protecting land in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the traditional territory of the Wabanaki Nations. This collaboration among Mi'kmaq, Peskotomuhkati, and Wolastoqey organizations, alongside non-Indigenous conservation groups, follows long-standing Indigenous conservation policies and practices. Activities include avoiding conversion of carbon-rich ecosystems through land acquisition and protecting carbon stores through conservation and care. This project will preserve habitat for species at risk in high-priority areas, including the Sikniktewaq/Chignecto Isthmus and Wolastoq/Saint John River Priority Places and preserve diverse and culturally important forests and forested wetlands within the Wabanaki-Acadian forest region.
Ontario
Recipient: Kawartha Land Trust
Approved funding: $7,000,000
Project description: This additional support for this existing project will help to advance conservation efforts underway and wrap up elements related to land acquisition and greenhouse gas reporting. This includes securing an additional 566 hectares of intact temperate forest and freshwater coastal habitat at an immediate high risk of development and subsequent loss of in-situ carbon. The project is located along the eastern shore of Pigeon Lake in the Kawartha Lakes region of southern Ontario. The property supports 28 species at risk, including the Blanding's Turtle, the Bobolink, and the Eastern Whip-poor-will.
Recipient: Conservation Ontario
Approved funding: $1,586,343
Project description: This additional support for this existing project will help fund activities which focus on the protection, restoration, and enhanced land management of wetlands, grasslands, and riparian areas in Ontario to implement nature-based climate solutions. This will include securing an additional 79 hectares of land at immediate high risk of conversion and subsequent loss of in-situ carbon. The new lands support multiple Species at Risk Act-listed species, including the Snapping Turtle, the False Hop Sedge, and the Chimney Swift.
Quebec
Recipient: Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - Quebec Chapter (CPAWS Quebec)
Approved funding: $5,535,577
Project description: This project will initiate and support activities to create protected areas south of the 49th parallel in Quebec, and in the Eeyou Istchee region and the Nitassinan region of Pessamit, in northern Quebec, in order to implement natural solutions to combat climate change. These activities will help prevent the conversion of carbon-rich ecosystems and sequester carbon in priority habitats such as old-growth forests, riparian zones, and wetlands, including peatlands.
* For some projects, final sizes and boundaries of the areas being protected are still being negotiated with the proponents.
