Spring is sprung in a number of places (but certainly not all) across Canada, bringing in fresh breezes and new faces. Please join me to welcome Robyn Rumney to the KBA initiative, as the new Ontario KBA Coordinator. Robyn has strong technical skills, including in GIS, and good knowledge of Ontario biodiversity, and we are thrilled to have her on board. Robyn will be reaching out to partners in Ontario in the coming month to convene a kick-off workshop on Ontario KBAs and will be relying on your expertise and advice to effectively identify and delineate KBAs in the province. We thank the Greenbelt Foundation for supporting this regional initiative. Read more about the KBA process in Ontario in our recent guest blog for the Ontario Biodiversity and Education Awareness Network.
As we move into the third year of the Canadian KBA initiative, we’re taking stock of what work remains and how we’ll get it done. We estimate that it will take about two more years to finish the bulk of KBA identification, delineation and review, by which time we’ll be transitioning into a more sustainable mode (less resource-intensive) during which remaining KBAs can still be identified, and existing KBAs will be monitored, updated and shared broadly to inform conservation work. Please register for a special stock-taking webinar for the KBA initiative on June 9th, 2021 from noon-2pm EST. In this webinar, you’ll hear about all aspects of the work to date and plans for the next two years, with a number of short presentations from the perspectives of governments, NGOs and scientists. We will send around a detailed agenda of the talks next month.
It is past time to introduce some of our team members to the KBA community and we’ll take the opportunity over the next number of newsletters to do this.
One of the first people to join me at the Canadian KBA Secretariat two years ago was Chloé Débyser. As the lead data analyst for the Canada KBA initiative, Chloé serves as a bridge between Canada KBA program needs and available technical tools. Chloé is an avid coder in the R programming language who provides analytical support to regional KBA identification efforts throughout Canada and leads national-scale KBA scoping initiatives (among many other things). Her attention to detail and commitment to excellence has improved every product in the KBA program, including the recently released National KBA Standard, of which she is an author. Prior to joining WCS Canada, she conducted data analysis, spatial modelling, and project coordination work for urban greenspace monitoring and landscape connectivity management initiatives in the U.S. and Panama, in collaboration with local government, urban planners, NGOs, consultants, and academics.
There will be no webinar in April, but stay tuned for May’s KBA webinar, where Giulia Carbone, Deputy Director of the IUCN Global Business and Biodiversity Programme, will present ‘Guidelines on Business and KBAs: Managing Risk to Biodiversity’.
Dr. Justina Ray of Wildilfe Conservation Society Canada presented our newly published KBA National Standard in our March webinar. The National Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas in Canada is the first National Standard to be developed using the Key Biodiversity Areas framework and incorporated biodiversity of national significance that wouldn’t otherwise be captured by the KBA Global Standard. Find the recording of this webinar and all past webinars, here.
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
