At the Salazar Center’s 2025 International Symposium on Conservation Impact, we will be exploring ways communities in North America can rethink how we can leverage nature’s benefits to build strong communities and local economies. Kate Potter, Executive Director of the Canadian Biosphere Network, will be moderating a session on ‘Where Community Meets Economy’—for which this reflection sets the stage, exploring how the Canadian Biosphere model helps us rethink how conservation can intersect with economic development.
In 2022, over 100 nations—including Canada—committed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, pledging to protect 30% of the world’s biodiversity by 2030 and restore the integrity, resilience, and connectivity of natural ecosystems by 2050. With just five years left to meet these ambitious targets, Canada’s 19 biosphere regions (also known as UNESCO-designated biosphere reserves) are showing what modern conservation can look like: not as isolated protection, but as a living partnership between people and nature. These regions redefine conservation as community-driven, place-based work that blends Indigenous leadership, local knowledge, and scientific insight—where sustainability, human well-being, and ecological health are deeply interconnected. As part of the 700+ sites in the global UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves, Canada’s biosphere regions are uniquely positioned to offer scalable, replicable solutions for the urgent biodiversity and climate challenges of our time.
Guided by the Canadian Biosphere Regions Association (CBRA), these regions champion a bold and unconventional approach to biodiversity protection—prioritizing harmony between people and nature while addressing modern challenges such as climate change, working landscapes, and habitat loss.
Canadian biosphere regions embrace the idea of working landscapes—places where people actively live, work, and grow alongside nature. This concept ensures that conservation doesn’t come at the expense of human prosperity but instead fosters mutual benefits. For example, in Ontario, the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve implemented a co-governed wild rice restoration project with local partners and in Georgian Bay, they implemented the Integrated Community Energy and Climate Action Project that involves regional prioritization, action and implementation efficiencies among the local municipalities and First Nations. And in Alberta, the Waterton Biosphere Reserve worked with agricultural producers to implement beneficial management practices to steward their grasslands, riparian, and aquatic habitats and the biodiversity on local farms and ranches.
These projects exemplify how managed landscapes can both support economic vitality and protect ecosystems, creating a model for sustainability.
While preserving nature is a cornerstone of biosphere regions, equally important is their focus on community resilience and empowerment. These regions act as a bridge between people and the environment, offering tools, knowledge, and collaborative strategies to build futures where both can prosper.
The unconventional conservation model of biosphere regions comes with its hurdles. Funding remains largely project-based, hindering the long-term scaling of impactful initiatives. There continues to be a disconnect with public perception and political decision-making when it comes to recognizing the environment as the foundation of both the economy and human survival. Engaging multiple stakeholders —including municipal governments, Indigenous Nations, conservation groups, and private landowners — takes time. But the model also opens doors to innovation and collaboration. It offers the opportunity to build stronger partnerships with Indigenous communities and co-develop governance models. Biosphere reserves can advocate for biodiversity policies at provincial and local levels to embed sustainability into future development. Finally, Biosphere Reserves help us recognize the value of ecosystem services can help integrate conservation into economic and policy decisions.
Canadian biosphere regions are critical players in implementing Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy. Their efforts align with 19 of the strategy’s 23 targets, demonstrating place-based conservation and sustainable land management at its best. Through projects like tree planting under the 2 Billion Trees Initiative, climate monitoring stations in Manicouagan-Uapishka, and ecosystem service assessments in Fundy, biosphere regions are directly advancing the strategy’s goals. Their unique ability to combine science, traditional knowledge, and community collaboration ensures that both ecosystems and people thrive in the face of modern challenges.
Together, these regions illuminate a path where conservation, community, and economic sustainability converge—a legacy of balance for future generations.
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As we continue to scale up these innovative, place-based approaches to conservation, we’re excited to explore these ideas further at the 2025 International Symposium on Conservation Impact and connect with others who are reimagining what conservation can look like in practice.