Implement 2030 Nature Strategy

AI summary

Petitioners ask Canada to implement 2030 Nature Strategy: reform harmful subsidies, use mitigation hierarchy and fund protected areas. The government responds it launched A Force of Nature, pledges 30% by 2030 and is reviewing incentives.

AI summaries describe petitioners’ requests and claims. Consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada WHEREAS - Canada is the second largest country in the world, with much of the world's natural heritage, including 24% of the world's boreal forests, 20% of the world's freshwater, three oceans, and all the plants and animals found within these ecosystems. - Nine in ten Canadians identify nature as an integral part of our national identity. - The economic value of ecosystem services in Canada is estimated to be at least CAD $3.6 trillion per year, and more than US $125 trillion of global annual economic value depends on nature; - Conserving and protecting our natural assets is more responsible and less expensive than restoring those assets after they have been degraded; - Local groups from across Canada, including wildlife centres and land trusts, are already working to support conservation. - Indigenous rightsholders and the provinces are already engaging in actions to protect and restore biodiversity in their jurisdictions; and - In 2024, the Federal Government released a strategy to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 called the 2030 Nature Strategy, but so far no new actions have been taken on this whole-of-government strategy; and current federal funding will end in March 2026. We, the undersigned residents of the Province of Ontario, call upon the Government of Canada to: Protect and restore our natural heritage by keeping their promise to implement the 2030 Nature Strategy, including to: - Identify, eliminate, phase out, or reform subsidies that reduce biodiversity, decrease soil fertility, increase pollution and weaken environmental protection. - Reduce ecosystem degradation by requiring that proponents of development projects avoid, minimize, eliminate, control, or offset adverse effects of development and natural resource management activities; and - Provide funding to establish more conservation lands and protected areas.

Government response

Response by the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature Signed by The Honourable Julie Dabrusin Nature is foundational in shaping our identity as Canadians, supporting our economy, and sustaining our way of life. Canada’s new government is focused on building a stronger, more independent, and more sustainable country. As it builds Canada strong, it is protecting what matters most - Canada’s land and waters. Which is why, on March 31, 2026, the Government of Canada released its path forward on nature entitled A Force of Nature: Canada’s Strategy to Protect Nature. Through this new strategy and billions of dollars of investment, we are delivering on our commitments to protect 30 percent of Canada’s lands and waters by 2030 (30x30) by deepening our partnerships and using innovative solutions for the benefit of nature and Canadians. This includes investments that will go towards the creation of two new national protected areas and the general expansion of conservation areas. We are establishing more areas for conservation like National Wildlife Areas, Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, Oceans Act Marine Protected Areas, and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures. Alongside Indigenous partners, we will also continue working on Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and other culturally grounded approaches. The new Strategy does not replace Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy. Rather, it complements and advances its implementation and outlines a plan for how the Government of Canada will contribute to delivering on it. A Force of Nature is built around three pillars: 1) Protecting Nature in Canada, 2) Building Canada Well, and 3) Valuing Nature and Mobilizing Capital. The first two of these pillars relate directly to the topics covered in your petition. Under the first pillar, the Government of Canada committed to moving terrestrial conservation from 14 per cent to 30 per cent by 2030. This will be achieved through adding up to 3% (299,540 km2) in new federal protected areas, adding at least 3% (299,540 km2) by working with partners to finalize projects that previously received Government of Canada funding and encourage reporting into the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database, adding at least 2% (199,693 km2) through the Project Finance for Permanence initiatives with Indigenous partners, and adding at least 8% (798,774 km2) by expanding partnerships and using flexible, science-based conservation approaches to protect and conserve nature across all landscapes, including through the use of Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures. Under the second pillar, the Government of Canada committed to integrate its nature and economic agendas to support timely development decisions while protecting nature. This work would be informed by science and proven concepts like the mitigation hierarchy, which is a sequenced approach to avoiding, minimizing, restoring, and offsetting the environmental impacts of development. Further, by mapping nature in Canada, the Government of Canada will enable integrated conservation and project planning. Harnessing data, mapping, and artificial intelligence will help us strengthen decision-making. When permitting is guided by sound science and best available information, regulators can help proponents adjust project designs to avoid or minimize environmental impacts - leading to fewer delays, better outcomes, and responsible development. The Government of Canada recently reported its progress toward aligning federal incentives with objectives, as part of its 7th National Report, which outlines Canada’s implementation of the 2030 Nature Strategy and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Target 18 of the Global Biodiversity Framework includes a commitment to identify by 2025, and review, and where appropriate, reform incentives that may negatively affect biodiversity outcomes, , including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity, in a proportionate, just, fair, effective and equitable way, as well as a commitment to scale up positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Since 2022, the Government of Canada has advanced work towards to identify and address incentives and subsidies that may harm biodiversity, consistent with our commitment to Target 18 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This work includes assessing existing federal measures to ensure they support conservation outcomes while continuing to meet public policy objectives. Work has also been informed by international efforts related to subsidy data, definitions, and potential impacts carried out under the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting and the G20 Data Gaps Initiative. Canada has also examined whether use of existing tools like the Climate, Nature and Economy Lens (part of the Cabinet Directive on Strategic Environmental and Economic Assessment), could inform decision making and understanding of potential impacts of federal incentives. Canada was also one of the early adopters of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which entered into force in September 2025. The agreement aims to ensure sustainable global fisheries by establishing new multilateral trade rules on certain fisheries subsidies linked to unsustainable fishing practices, including those related to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, overfished stocks, and unregulated high seas fishing. For more information, consult A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature.