In order to meet its 2030 biodiversity targets, Canada is heavily relying on Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas, which could do more harm than good for First Nations, Inuit and Métis.
As protected and conserved areas increase, an equity-based approach that respects Indigenous rights can help bring the transformative changes we need to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
To address the climate and biodiversity crises, we must stop criminalizing Indigenous Peoples for exercising their treaty rights and start upholding them instead.
Indigenous-led conservation economies have immense reconciliatory potential and need to be respectfully supported and engaged in order to create a new shared and equitable economic system.