Extra help on the farm
Bats can be a big help in protecting crops and livestock
Here’s something that should interest any farmer: Bats in Canada eat nothing but insects. That’s a key message our Alberta Community Bat Program is getting out to farmers about the benefits of keeping bats on the farm. Noting that a large colony of bats can eat a literal ton of insects over a summer, program staff are talking to farmers about helping the bats that help them. And it is not just crops that bats help to protect. Bats’ voracious appetite for insects also helps to protect livestock from insect-borne diseases and harassment by flies. A new brochure put together by the program outlines how farmers can help their high-flying friends by reducing hazards like barbed wire near water sources and by retaining habitat, especially old trees.

The team has also produced a short video on the benefits of bats for farms.
Showing peatlands some respect
Want to know why peatlands matter? A recent New York Times story looks to answer that question and includes some links to our peatlands storymap that visualizes the many benefits of conserving these watery, mossy and carbon-rich landscapes. Our peatlands expert, Dr. Lorna Harris, also talks about just how much carbon peatlands hold – noting that the Hudson Bay Lowlands store about 175 years of Canada’s current annual greenhouse gas emissions – in an article in This magazine. And if you are looking for something new to stream besides that new Drake drop, Lorna also discusses the potential impacts of mining in the Ring of Fire area on peatlands on the For Peat’s Sake podcast. It’s great to see the word getting out about why we must ensure peatlands are properly protected and not just seen as places where we can dig mines and dam rivers without consequences.  
Canada is a peat powerhouse with huge swaths of deep peatlands forming a belt across the midsection of the country
But the Hudson Bay Lowlands are a lot more than just an enormous carbon storehouse. This vast intact landscape hosts diverse plant and lichen species, has some of the last undammed rivers in North America, is a hugely important stopover site for migratory birds and critical habitat for everything from caribou to polar bears. “It’s such a watery landscape,” Harris tells Mongabay. “Every peatland is connected to every other peatland that is next to it, which is then connected to the streams, which go to the rivers downstream, all the way down to Hudson Bay and James Bay.”

The new Fawn River Indigenous Protected Area Ecological Atlas, the product of a collaboration between Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) community and WCS Canada, takes an in-depth look at a proposed Indigenous protected area within the lowlands and paints a detailed scientific picture of why this area is globally important.
Saving species
When we talk about endangered species, many Canadians may think of creatures like white rhinos or Siberian tigers. But we have plenty of endangered species right here in Canada. Officially, there are 685 species listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, but we know that is an incomplete picture. Also, sadly, this list grows every year. Our Director of National Conservation, Dan Kraus talks about what we can do to help species at risk and why it matters in a piece for the National Observer where he introduces us to “10 Canadian species to know – and save.”

Learn more about Canadian species on the edge of extinction from our SHAPE of Nature project.
The rusty-patch bumble bee is one of the 10 species worth getting to know.

Photo. Heather Holm pollinatorsnativeplants.com
Canada steps up on biodiversity protection
The Convention on Biodiversity, first signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, is an ambitious international treaty designed to help stem the loss of nature. The last strategic plan – known as the Aichi targets – developed under the treaty expired in 2020 and a new approach – named the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) – is now being developed. None of the Aichi targets were met by the treaty signatories, so a real commitment to taking a new plan seriously is badly needed as the global biodiversity crisis continues to accelerate. The good news is that talks to finalize the GBF will now take place in Montreal this December. These urgent talks (known as COP15), which were originally set to take place in China, have been repeatedly delayed by the COVID crisis. 

The bad news is that progress on renewing the treaty is not progressing at a way that will get us to the finish line of a clear pathway to halt and reverse the loss of nature. WCS has joined a number of other conservation organizations in a statement urging countries to get moving, noting “Progress during this last round of negotiations before COP15 has been painfully slow, across the whole framework. There is still a massive gap between what we need in order to transition from a nature negative to a nature-positive economy and the inconclusive and woefully inadequate text currently on the table.”

Canada has a big role to play in these talks that goes well beyond booking rooms and printing agendas, notes WCS Canada President Justina Ray in an interview with the Globe and Mail. This country has plenty of opportunity to demonstrate real leadership on biodiversity protection and conserve some of the planet’s last intact wild areas.
Canada is fortunate to still have vast intact natural landscapes, such as this area in Yukon around Frances Lake. But this is more often thanks to the vast size of our country than good planning. Photo: Hilary Cooke/WCS Canada.

Want to make a difference for wildlife?

Stand for Wildlife by supporting our important research today!
Top banner image: Myotis sp. by Jason Headley