In this session of our Connecting for Conservation webinar series, panelists from Canada and the U.S. discussed the importance of protecting North American forests to achieve durable outcomes for people, biodiversity, and the climate.

The U.S. and Canada have made unprecedented commitments to climate and biodiversity, including the protection of 30% of their lands by 2030. To meet these goals, countries need strong foundations to create robust policy frameworks that protect the carbon-rich forests of North America. The panel highlighted weaknesses in current national forest carbon accounting practices in Canada and ways the government can leverage forest protection to achieve climate goals, as well as new spatial tools to map mature forests for the conterminous U.S. to inform national conservation and climate target setting. Together, they explored the need to address underlying barriers to the realization of strong forest-climate solutions policies, and opportunities for the countries to work together to address them and create a new model of global forest leadership.

Pictured: Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Photo by Dominick DellaSala.

Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala, Chief Scientist, Wild Heritage, Project of Earth Island Institute

Dr. DellaSala is Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage and former President of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section. He is an internationally renowned author of over 250 science papers on forest and fire ecology, conservation biology, endangered species management, and landscape ecology. Learn more about Dr. DellaSala.

Graham Saul, Executive Director, Nature Canada

Graham joined Nature Canada 2017 and has more than 25 years of experience working on social and environmental justice issues. Previously, he worked for Friends of the Earth Canada and Oil Change International and Climate Action Network Canada and is a founding member of Ecology Ottawa. Learn more about Graham.

 

This webinar was produced in partnership with Nature Canada, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Wild Heritage.
Nature Canada (logo), NRDC (logo), World Heritage (logo)

Dates

Date Start Time End Time
March 22, 2022 12:00 pm 1:00 pm

Contact Information

Jen Kovecses: jen.kovecses@colostate.edu

Key Themes

  • Biodiversity
  • Climate change
  • Healthy landscapes
  • Indigenous conservation