Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Conservation in the climate change era

The head of Canada's largest international conservationist agency believes the era of looking at single-issue fixes for protecting wildlife may be coming to an end.
WWF.18_1172018.jpg
Megan Leslie, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund-Canada, will deliver a keynote address Thursday night as part of a symposium on cumulative effects research at UNBC. Photo: WWF-Canada

The head of Canada's largest international conservationist agency believes the era of looking at single-issue fixes for protecting wildlife may be coming to an end.

The changing world of wildlife and habitat conservation will be the subject of a lecture delivered by Megan Leslie, the president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, on Thursday night at UNBC. The lecture will kick off the bi-annual Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium symposium on Friday, which will bring together experts in the areas climate change, watershed governance, first nations governance, wildfire preparedness and other topics related to the study of cumulative effects.

According to Megan Leslie, cumulative effects research, the study of of multiple stressors on at-risk species, has complicated the work of conservationists.

"When there's a single stressor, it can be easy to figure out what we need to do. But most endangered species in Canada are in danger because of multiple stressors; because of climate change, because of over-harvesting, because of habitat fragmentation or habitat loss," Leslie said.

Leslie, who served two terms as an NDP Member of Parliament for Halifax, said climate change has added a new layer of complexity to conservation and habitat preservation work. It has also added a degree of urgency; a report released last year by WWF found that half of all monitored species are in decline across Canada. Of the species in decline, populations have declined 83 per cent since 1970.

"In many ways, it's been a real call to arms for us at WWF," Leslie said of the report.

"We have realized that our reason for being is to reverse the decline of wildlife. That is what we eat and breathe every day."

Chris Buse, project lead for the Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium, has seen growing concern for many species in northern B.C. The caribou population, for instance, has seen a significant decline in numbers. Buse said industry and provincial regulators have made improvements in minimizing impacts on wildlife and habitat from single projects, but more global challenges remain.

"The challenge, really, across northern British Columbia is that we've got multiple industries operating on the same landbase and we need to have a little bit more of a holistic vision for how those industries are all operating, what the cumulative stressors of those things are on habitat," Buse said.

Leslie believes industry has a significant role to play in tackling these conservation challenges.

"I think that industry and business often get painted with this negative brush when actually they want to be partners," she said.

Leslie's lecture, entitled "Cumulative Impacts to Wildlife and Habitat Conservation in an Era of Environmental Change," will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Canfor Theatre at UNBC. The Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium runs throughout the day Friday.