October 29, 2024 – Ottawa, Canada – Global Affairs Canada

Biodiversity loss poses a fundamental threat to our everyday lives, impacting clean water, air, fertile soil, food, medicine, the global economy and climate control. The climate crisis is affecting biodiversity as events like wildfires become more severe and frequent in Canada and around the world.

This week, delegations from around the world are meeting at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, to advance the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) to achieve the international community’s goal of living in harmony with nature by 2050.

Canada is committed to working with all partners to halt and reverse the loss of nature and protect Indigenous rights. That’s why the Government of Canada supports conservation efforts to increase the resilience of communities in many parts of the world.

Today, the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, and the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced 7 projects, worth a total of $62 million, that aim to protect biodiversity in regions around the world, with a particular focus in Latin America. For example, Canada’s contribution will increase the resilience to climate change of Indigenous communities in the Amazon through the integration of ancestral practices to address climate variability.

These projects will be implemented in partnership with the following institutions:

• Conservation International – Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
• UN Development Programme – Biodiversity Ecosystem Restoration for Community Resilience in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh project
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada – Supporting the Protection of Marine Biodiversity Within the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean project
• WildAid – Strengthening Marine Law Enforcement in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean project
• World Food Programme – Enhancing Indigenous Peoples’ Resilience to Climate Change in Colombia project
• International Union for the Conservation of Nature – Podong Indigenous Peoples Initiative
• UN Environment Programme – Accelerating Systemic Change for Gender Equality and Biodiversity Conservation Through the National Biodiversity Strategies and Actions Plans Accelerator Partnership