Game-changing investment in nature will accelerate protection of high priority BC landscapes
Teck donates $12M to Nature Conservancy of Canada
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is celebrating a transformational philanthropic investment in its work from Teck Resources Limited (Teck). Teck has pledged $12 million to NCC as part of the company’s commitment to be nature positive by 2030. The donation will support new land conservation projects in the province that are only possible with multi-partner collaboration. Further commitments from Teck are expected to be announced over the next eight years.
Teck’s gift will add $2M a year for six years to NCC’s Collaborative Conservation Impact Fund in British Columbia, enabling NCC to pursue innovative, large scale conservation projects alongside governments, Indigenous communities, and industry participants.
The funding increases NCC’s ability to say ‘yes’ to opportunities when they arise. When invited, NCC will be able to share its expertise in project and conservation management, and negotiation, as well as financial capital, to contribute to partner-led projects. This might include projects where land is purchased for conservation, or where resource tenures are bought out to remove obstacles to conservation. NCC has contributed to similar projects in the past such as Qat’muk in 2019 and the Tenh Dẕetle Conservancy in 2021.
Land conservation and restoration provide effective solutions to counter the challenges of rapid biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change. For example, forests store carbon, and wetlands retain water. The size of the challenge means we must work today at an unprecedented scale.
In the past two years alone, NCC has influenced the protection of more than 1 million hectares, coast to coast to coast. Over the next few years, the organization will double its impact by mobilizing Canadians and delivering permanent, high-value conservation.
The pledge announced today will grow NCC’s ability to accelerate practical, permanent conservation impact and contribute meaningfully to Canada’s conservation commitment of protecting 25 per cent of its lands and waters by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030.
Quotes
“We applaud Teck for taking real and measurable action to become a nature positive company by the end of the decade. Teck’s commitment to and investment in the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s work will help us accelerate the pace and scale of conservation in British Columbia. If we conserve entire natural systems, we help nature to deliver the essential services that support life. That’s why conservation matters. Teck is demonstrating that for-profit and non-profit organizations can come together to tackle the toughest ecological challenges of our time, biodiversity loss and climate change.” – Catherine Grenier, President and CEO, Nature Conservancy of Canada
“We are committed to working with local partners, communities and Indigenous Peoples to conserve ecologically and culturally significant lands and work towards the goal of becoming a nature positive mining company by 2030. Nature loss is a serious global challenge that we are all called on to do our part to halt and reverse. Working towards being nature positive in each region we operate builds on Teck’s long-standing commitment to biodiversity and reflects the passion of our employees for caring for the land where they live and work.” – Don Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck
Facts
- Teck has supported NCC’s work in BC since 2003. Their past gifts have helped to protect heritage grasslands in the Rocky Mountain Trench and the Nicola Valley, as well as a crucial tract of inland temperate rainforest near Nelson.
- Teck has also supported NCC’s capacity to manage and enhance the natural resilience of lands under its care.
- The large scale of conservation that is enabled by the Collaborative Conservation Impact Fund will make a major contribution to Canada’s 30x30 goals.
- The Collaborative Conservation Impact Fund provides support for costs associated project management, Indigenous collaboration, fee-simple or resource (tree, mineral, development, etc.) tenure buy-out and operations.
- Land conservation and management could provide over 30% of the mitigation needed between now and 2030 to keep global temperature rise below 2°C through natural climate solutions. Natural climate solutions | PNAS
About
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is the country’s unifying force for nature. NCC seeks solutions to the twin crises of rapid biodiversity loss and climate change through large-scale, permanent land conservation. As a trusted partner NCC works with people, communities, businesses and government to protect and care for our country’s most important natural areas. Since 1962, NCC has brought Canadians together to conserve and restore more than 15 million hectares.
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