Hello all,

A short update for you this month. The Canadian KBA Coalition is continuing to make progress on delineating and completing proposals for KBAs across Canada, with an initial sets of proposals nearing completion in Yukon, Atlantic Canada and the Prairies. All proposed sites undergo expert review and will be made more broadly available for feedback from governments, communities and organizations as well. The process to develop and streamline review and outreach is under development. Members of the KBA Coalition are also busy building and refining the infrastructure that this project relies on, notably the database managed by NatureServe Canada that holds millions of records associated with KBA ‘trigger’ species, and various tools for viewing and commenting on KBA proposals.

A couple of short items:

• Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas that meet the KBA ecosystem criteria (threatened or geographically restricted ecosystems) is challenging in Canada because it requires a common vegetation classification and ecosystem threat assessments. NatureServe (US) has made progress in that realm, and recently shared the results of completed Red List assessments for prairie ecosystems in Canada during a virtual workshop. Click here to view the recording. The results from that initial analysis will be interpreted and discussed by Canadian experts in order to identify potential sites for KBA delineation based on these criteria.
• The work of the KBA Canada Coalition has also gained some recent media attention, with guest blogs on the Key Biodiversity Areas initiative in Canada being published by Canadian Geographic and Ontario’s Biodiversity Education Awareness Network. These blogs describe the unique biodiversity values held in KBAs and why KBAs are a great addition to the Canadian conservation landscape.

As always, please get in touch if you have questions or if you want to learn more.

Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne

Canada Key Biodiversity Areas Coordinator / Coordonnatrice Zones Clés pour la Biodiversité