In entrance of a pleasant viewers on the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Minister of Worldwide Affairs, the honorable Ahmed Hussen, selected Could 22, Worldwide Biodiversity Day, to announce a whopping $15M of funding over three years for worldwide hen conservation from Canada. Birds Canada, our Canadian companion group in BirdLife Worldwide, is the deserved recipient of the funding, although most of it’ll go to defending habitat in Latin America. This superb announcement places Canada entrance and centre as a serious participant in defending hen populations within the Americas.
Billions of birds transfer throughout the continents every spring and fall. Canada is a nursery to billions of birds of all kinds — songbirds, shorebirds, waterfowl, seabirds, raptors, and so on. — most of whom migrate past our borders every fall. The overwhelming majority keep within the Americas for his or her non-breeding seasons. Birds elsewhere within the Americas face the identical acquainted threats to birds in Canada: habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, predation from cats, window collisions, gentle air pollution, plastic air pollution, disturbance by human actions, and so forth. Defending key habitats in Latin America and the Caribbean from these threats is crucial to defending populations of our shared species of birds and people which might be resident within the nations to the south. The funding will outcome within the creation of 100 new protected areas in Latin America and the Caribbean defending not less than two million hectares.
Conserva Aves is a partnership of organizations decided to guard hen populations in Latin America and the Caribbean together with the Latin American and Caribbean Community of Environmental Funds (REDLAC), BirdLife Americas, Nationwide Audubon, the American Chook Conservancy and now Birds Canada. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Central America are at the moment the main focus of this work which is able to embrace vital engagement of, and assist for, native communities together with Indigenous communities and women-led initiatives.
This assist from Canada is a sport changer for biodiversity on this extremely necessary a part of the world. One of many three species of birds that has “Canada” as a part of its official identify, the Canada Warbler, spends many of the yr within the mid-slopes of the Andes mountains in Colombia, and adjoining nations. Curiously, many Colombians are extra accustomed to this discreet forest species (threatened in Canada) than Canadians are, and have a powerful argument to name it the “Colombian Warbler.” However that species underlines the overwhelming have to work internationally to guard and restore hen populations in Canada. Conserva Aves is a superb step in that route and we applaud the Authorities of Canada and Birds Canada for this announcement and the work that can come. Nature Canada is proud to be a companion of Birds Canada on this initiative. Extra to return about that a part of the story.
Ted Cheskey, Naturalist Director at Nature Canada and Patrick Nadeau, President & CEO of Birds Canada
