NCC Magazine: Winter 2022

Looking ahead
A strong workforce of young adults (those aged 18–35)
is a strategic advantage because it helps us focus on
tomorrow, take bolder actions, think innovatively and
consider long-term impacts, says NCC’s president and
CEO, Catherine Grenier.
“When you have a young cohort working with you, it
allows you to glance at what the future’s going to look
like,” says Grenier. “In the nature conservation field, it’s
important to have all demographics represented, but
especially young adults, because they’re the ones who
will see the benefits of the work we are doing now in
five, 10, 15, 25 years.”
If you look back at NCC’s big accomplishments from
the last while, there have been young people involved in
almost every one,” says Megan Lafferty, NCC’s manager
of land protection measures. “For example, young staff
led the Vidal Bay project, our largest to date in Ontario.
From fundraising to closing projects, many young staff
were instrumental in the success of our Landmark
Campaign. And they are pushing us to do more, better.”
Lafferty has joined Grenier for today’s interview
about young people leading the way in conservation.
The joint interview is a subtle, but important, signal
that shows NCC’s youthful advantage is not by accident,
but by design. Lafferty, 32, heads up a taskforce of
young staff entrusted with making recommendations
to NCC’s management, using the “by youth, for youth”
approach, well-understood as a prerequisite for
meaningful youth engagement.
Young people know what young people need,
Lafferty says, and when they lead with a clear purpose,
it injects their fresh perspectives and unique values
into conservation efforts.
“Young people today think more about social impact and
take a more comprehensive look at their actions and their
consequences, as well as the interconnectedness of the
things we do,” says Lafferty, “We’re seeing more and more
how interconnected the challenges we’re facing are with
climate change and biodiversity. Supporting young people
who have that interconnected vision is important if we want
to address those challenges.” Added to that, Lafferty says,
is that today’s youth leaders are tomorrow’s world leaders.
“In the climate and biodiversity space, youth are not
tomorrow’s leaders, they’re the only leaders,” challenges
James Bartram, president of the Canadian Committee
for the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(CCIUCN). It’s a bold statement from someone who is
a strong supporter of intergenerational learning, where
people of all ages learn together and from one another.
But Bartram’s statement is not meant to undermine the
contributions of previous generations. Instead, he credits
young people for having mainstreamed climate change in
global conversations, and says the same will only happen
for biodiversity if youth are educated, equipped and empowered
to lead. To help young adults advance their conservation
leadership, CCIUCN has for many years hosted
a Youth Ambassador Program, while their Young Professionals
in Canadian Conservation Network is a one-thousand-member-and-growing
inclusive virtual network raising
up the voices of young conservation leaders.