Webinar Series

To celebrate 25 years of action in Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada hosted a webinar series showcasing various local and international initiatives for biodiversity. These one hour webinars were open to all Canadians and the international community wishing to learn more about biodiversity and actions to preserve it for generations to come.

Past Sessions

The Role of Nature-Based Solutions in Attaining the Paris Climate Agreement Goal
Presented by Dr. Risa Smith, International Union for Conservation of Nature

Dr. Risa Smith is the Co-Chair, IUCN, World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA), Protected Areas Dr. Risa SmithClimate Change Specialist Group (PACCSG).

PACCSG is currently focused on a number of initiatives that will advance nature-based solutions to climate change, including:

• Development of a report on policies and guidelines for climate change mitigation in protected areas

• Documenting impacts of climate change on protected areas

• Development of a climate vulnerability index

• E-learning modules for nature-based solutions to climate change

• Advancing post 2020 biodiversity targets to include:

• Nature based solutions to climate change adaptation and mitigation

• Ensuring actions on climate change attain co-benefits and avoid unintended negative consequences for biodiversity

• Advancing previous work on “Adapting to Climate Change: Guidance for Protected Areas Managers and Planners”

Risa also represents WCPA on two IUCN Task Forces for: Climate Change and Synthetic Biology. Risa is an ecologist who has worked, in the past, on biological control of invasive alien species, State of Environment Reporting for both the BC government and Environment Canada, and was, until October 2017, manager of the International Biodiversity Policy Program in the Canadian Wildlife Service. Risa is well-known for her leadership on environmental reporting, including Canada’s response to the 2010 global biodiversity target: Canadian Biodiversity: Ecosystem Status and Trends 2010.

Gender Considerations and Biodiversity
Presented by Tanya McGregor, Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat

This webinar will provide an introduction to gender equality and biodiversity linkages, and an overview of key gender elements under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Gender equality considerations relevant to Tanya McGregorthe Aichi Biodiversity Targets will be discussed, highlighting the how they can strengthen sustainable pathways to achieve the Aichi Targets. The webinar will also include some reflection on the development of the global post-2020 biodiversity framework.

Tanya McGregor is the Gender Programme Officer at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. She has a background in international development and environmental science, and began her career as a student field biologist exploring the wilds of Ontario and thereafter Saskatchewan and Hawaii. Tanya worked with the IUCN in South Africa in supporting the development of sustainable natural resource management enterprises in multiple countries in Southern Africa, following which she joined the former Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Tanya worked in a variety of programming and policy roles related to natural resources management, food security, maternal and child health, and climate change, among others. She is currently on leave from Global Affairs Canada, working with the Secretariat of the CBD.

What Drives the Effectiveness of Protected Areas: Necessary Conditions for Conservation Success
Presented by Dr. Stephen Woodley, International Union for Conservation of Nature

Stephen Woodley is an ecologist, who has worked in the field of environmental conservation for 35 years. He worked as a consultant, a field biologist, manager of a national fire restoration program and forest ecologist before becoming the first Chief Scientist for Parks Canada in 1992. In that position he worked on a number of issues related to protected areas, including ecological monitoring, species at risk, wildlife disease, ecological restoration, science policy and climate change. In 2011, Stephen began working as Senior Advisor to the Global Protected Areas Program of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and continues that work as Vice Chair for Science and Biodiversity of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas. The focus of the work is to understand the role of protected areas as solutions to the current global conservation challenges. He also works as a consultant on protected areas, resource management and sustainable development.

This presentation focuses on the factors that result in successful conservation outcomes from protected areas. Simply put, when and why do protected areas work to conserve nature? An IUCN Task Force was formed to sort out this question and the presentation reports on that work. If protected areas are to be effective as our key tools to halt biodiversity loss, they need to be planned, governed, and managed for success. Quality protection is as important as quantity.

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna: Actions for Arctic Biodiversity
Presented by Courtney Price, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)

Courtney Price is the Communications Manager at the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council, a high level intergovernmental forum to promote cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, with the involvement of Arctic Indigenous Peoples. 

Courtney joined the CAFF International Secretariat in Akureyri, Iceland in 2011 and works to design, plan and implement an overall communications strategy for CAFF and its programs and projects. She works with key partners to address international scientific and political audiences in formal and informal settings and was instrumental in organizing and hosting the highly successful Arctic Biodiversity Congress. She has recently been appointed the Arctic Migratory Birds Initiative coordinator and is overseeing efforts to unite Arctic and non-Arctic countries in the conservation of declining populations of Arctic-breeding migratory birds. She joined CAFF to specialize in Arctic issues after Environment Canada, where she worked to promote the findings of the wildlife research community to departmental policy audiences. Courtney has a Bachelor's in Journalism, double major mass communications, from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada and a Masters of Science in Global Challenges from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Role of Botanical Gardens in Biodiversity Related Education
Presented by David Galbraith, Royal Botanical Gardens

This webinar will outline how botanical gardens - a specific group of knowledge and collections-based institutions - are helping to mainstream awareness of and engagement with biodiversity issues. In North America over 100 million visitors per year attend botanical and public gardens. Using the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) as a framework, botanical gardens are making substantial contributions relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Canada’s Biodiversity Goals and Targets for 2020, and increasingly the Sustainable Development Goals. Both formal and informal educational approaches are used to raise awareness of biodiversity.

David Galbraith is head of science at Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG), in Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario. He has a background in wildlife biology and evolutionary ecology, having completed his doctorate at Queen’s University at Kingston. In 1995 he joined RBG to lead a national network of botanical gardens involved in biodiversity and conservation programs. Named RBG’s head of science in 2006, he’s responsible for archival, library and herbarium programs and collections, as well as liaison with researchers and universities, and research staff. He remains involved in plant conservation issues, and serves as the National Focal Point for Canada for the GSPC, a flexible framework under the CBD aiding plant conservation targets at the national and regional levels to be developed and achieved.

A Youth Perspective on Biodiversity and its Future

Presented by Canada’s youth delegates to the UN CBD Conference of the Parties from 2016 and 2018, Thomas McAuley-Biasi (COP-13 in 2016) and Kelsey Worboys (COP-14 in 2018), shared their past experiences at COP and initiated discussions on their vision for a post-2020 global biodiversity framework.