WWF_LP_FALL_2020_FIN

Forests, like those
the Canada lynx call
home, are one of
the most powerful
tools we have in
the fight against
climate change.
OUR VISION
1
© SHUTTERSTOCK
JOIN OUR
DECADE
OF ACTION
By Megan Leslie
Barren-ground caribou
© ROBERT BOWHAY
FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE
WITH NATURE
Canada holds a significant
amount of the world’s carbon-rich
forests, coastal zones, grasslands,
peatlands and wetlands. Not only
do these ecosystems provide
habitat and sequester carbon
from the atmosphere, they can
release it. WWF-Canada is already
identifying our country’s carbon
sinks and, over the next decade,
will restore and protect them in
the fight against climate change.
Take a moment to imagine a Canada of the
future, one with abundant wildlife, where
nature and people thrive. That’s a future I
can imagine, and one that I want to work
toward. Luckily, I’m not alone! With the
support of incredible conservationists like you,
we’ve made important gains toward that vision
over WWF-Canada’s 53-year history.
But as the threats to wildlife evolve, so must
our strategy — which is why I’m excited to tell you
that WWF-Canada has launched a new action
plan for the next ten years. It’s a plan as ambitious
as the nature crisis is urgent. It’s a plan that will
harness the power of nature to fight biodiversity
loss and climate change.
In this time of short attention spans, we need
to put our heads down and focus on what wildlife
need for the long term. Ten years of concentrated
effort and commitment to increase at-risk wildlife
populations is the time we need for us to make
a measurable difference — and, of course, “us”
includes you.
There’s no time to waste. Populations of at-risk
species in Canada have declined by 59 per cent
since 1970. The main cause is habitat loss — the
destruction and disruption of areas where wildlife
find food and water, give birth and raise their
young, escape predators, migrate, and hibernate.
The impacts of unsustainable approaches
to industrial activities — like deforestation,
overexploitation and pollution — are increasingly
threatening wildlife survival while climate change
LIVING PLANET FALL 2020 — PAGE 4