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Felling Short: British Columbia’s Old Growth management Areas Falling Short on Protecting Old Growth Forests

We crunched the data and took a close look at Old Growth Management Areas – a type of ‘other conserved area’ (aka OECM) in BC that is intended to protect rare and important biodiverse old growth forests. These areas are counted as protected by the BC government, but we found active and harvested cutblocks inside Old Growth Management Areas, and very little old growth forest.

CPAWS-BC 2023 Annual Report

Celebrate what we’ve accomplished together for conservation this year! Catch highlights and stories of working to advance conservation and Indigenous-led lands and water protection in BC. Thank you to our community of members, partners and staff, volunteers for your generous support. We couldn’t do this work without you.

Building Momentum: A Progress Update on Canada’s Nature Protection Targets

This CPAWS report looks at progress made by federal, provincial and territorial governments over the past two years towards reaching the target of protecting at least 30% of land and ocean by 2030. To assess this progress, we not only reviewed additional areas protected on the ground, but also indications of progress towards this ultimate goal.

CPAWS-BC 2022 Annual Report

Catch highlights and stories of working to advance conservation and Indigenous-led lands and water protection in BC. Thank you to our community of members, partners and staff, volunteers for your generous support. We couldn’t do this work without you.

An Honest Accounting: Improving BC's Approach to Claiming Other Conserved Areas [February 2022]

An Honest Accounting: Improving BC’s Approach to Claiming Other Conserved Areas report finds select accounting of protected areas and other effective conservation measures (OECMs) designations do not meet international or Canadian standards, as set out in the Canadian Decision Support Tool.

MPA Monitor: Assessing Canada's Marine Protected Areas [October 2021]

CPAWS presents MPA Monitor: Assessing Canada’s Marine Protected Areas – a detailed report that investigates how well protected and well managed Canada’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) really are. Presently, almost 14% of Canada’s ocean is protected and the country is committed to protecting 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. We analysed about half of the protected areas and found that the majority is weakly protected. CPAWS is the first organization to use a ground-breaking new MPA evaluation tool, The MPA Guide, to examine 18 MPAs that make up 8.3% of Canada’s ocean. Learn More: cpaws.org/oceanreport

CPAWS-BC 2021 Annual Report

A look back at last year’s impact defending public lands and waters in BC. Thank you to our community of members, partners and staff, volunteers for your generous support. We couldn’t do this work without you.

The Grades Are In: A Report Card On Canada’s Progress in Protecting its Land and Ocean [June 2021]

The first of its kind, The Grades Are In: A Report Card On Canada’s Progress in Protecting its Land and Ocean is intended as a baseline against which to track Canada’s annual progress toward reaching its 30X30 protection goal. This assessment shows that a lack of commitment and ambition across much of the country stymied efforts to protect at least 17% of Canadian land and inland waters by last year’s 2020 deadline. Currently, only 13.1% of the country’s land is protected. Canada met its 10% ocean protection target by 2020 with 13.8% protected, albeit with concerns about the quality of conservation measures in some areas.

Healthy Nature, Healthy People: A call to put nature protection at the heart of Canada's COVID-19 recovery strategies [2020]

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the critical role of Canada’s treasured parks and protected areas. They are not just important for protecting nature and tackling climate change, but also for maintaining Canadians’ health and well-being, and supporting a resilient, diversified economy. In the report, Healthy Nature Healthy People, CPAWS provides recommendations for how federal, provincial and territorial governments can provide health and economic benefits to Canadians by investing in protected areas.

Government investments bring Canada closer to conservation goals! [2020]

Getting to Canada’s new goals of 25% protection by 2025 and 30% by 2030 will take more leadership, including more investment by the federal government. The historic investment of 2018 is working. Let’s keep going!

Finding Common Ground: Six steps for tackling climate change and biodiversity loss in Canada [August 2019]

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) unveiled its report, Finding Common Ground: Six steps for tackling climate change and biodiversity loss in Canada, providing a high-level roadmap for policy makers to harness ecosystem conservation and deliver win-win climate and biodiversity benefits by 2030.

Canada's Nature Emergency [July 2019]

CPAWS calls on Canada to champion a global goal of protecting and restoring half the earth, with a milestone target of protecting at least 30% of land and freshwater by 2030, and to commit to this at home.

Mind the Gap: Falling short on conserving biodiversity in BC. [2019]

As part of these goals, Canada has agreed to protect 17% of our lands and inland waters by 2020 in a connected, representative, well-managed system of protected and conserved areas. In the lead up to these meetings, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s BC Chapter (CPAWSBC) has conducted a preliminary analysis of biodiversity conservation in BC and our progress towards these targets.

Canadian Space for Nature Survey [June 2018]

The Canadian Space for Nature Survey found that across Canada there is overwhelming support for protected areas. 93% of Canadians believe that protected areas.

From Laggard to Leader: Canada's renewed focus on protecting nature could deliver results [2017]

CPAWS’ 2017 report “From Laggard to Leader? Canada’s renewed focus on protecting nature could deliver results,” encourages federal, provincial, and territorial governments to step up their protection efforts in order to conserve Canada’s natural heritage, and deliver on our international commitment.