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Canada's Ocean Promise Sounds Big, But Is It Enough? · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Canada has a rare chance in becoming a global ocean conservation leader,
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  but we still have a lot of work to do as a fellow Canadian myself.
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  But there's been a new proposal from Prime Minister Mark Carney, a
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  $3.8 billion dollar nature strategy that was proposed in part of the
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  development of 2030 to get 30 by 30.
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  So they wanna increase the amount of protections by 2030 from land and water.
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  We're gonna talk about that on this episode of the How to Protect the
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  Ocean podcast, 'cause this is where you get your weekly ocean news updates.
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  Monday to Friday, we talk all oceans.
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  Sometimes we do an interview on Friday.
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  We prep you for that interview with solo episodes.
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  Today, this week is all solo episodes because it is Oceans Week.
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  Oceans Day was on Monday, June 8th.
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  Some people call this Oceans Month in June.
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  I mean, every day is Ocean Day when you listen to the How to Protect
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  the Ocean podcast, which is great.
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  But we're gonna be talking this week a lot about some positive
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  news and some dedications and some commitments from a lot of these
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  countries and like Canada, like my own.
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  So we're gonna talk a little bit about that and why that is important.
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  So look, here's the history in Canada with marine protected areas over the
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  last, like, decade, decade and a half.
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  When the Trudeau administration came in, Trudeau became prime minister in
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  2015, we had less than one percent protected of marine and land in
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  Canada, especially on the marine side.
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  And that was unacceptable because we had already committed to 30 by 30, 30%
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  of the marine realm protected by 2030.
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  It was a part of the Convention of Biological Diversity, and that was
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  an important mark for us, and it was an important mark as countries.
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  When countries commit to these types of international agreements,
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  like the Convention of Biological Diversity or the Paris Accord Climate
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  Agreement, this is an important thing because they have to commit to that.
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  They have to actually do the work to get that.
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  If not, they get embarrassed when they committed and it doesn't work.
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  That can go against that politician, that prime minister or president's voting when
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  they say, "Okay, we said we were gonna do something about it." And so that is
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  something that's important to them, and it's also just important from a pride
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  perspective for the country in itself.
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  And so for the Trudeau administration that came in, Prime Minister Trudeau was
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  saying, "Hey, we wanna increase it. We are going to increase it before 2020 to
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  15%." And that's what they actually did.
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  In a matter of four years, they had marine protected areas that were in
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  development and in sort of negotiations for quite a while that got protected.
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  There was an expansion on the deep sea hydrothermal vents
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  system along the West Coast.
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  Many of the protected areas that were put in the Arctic, and there's
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  still some that have been put in.
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  And now there are more that are proposed.
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  In fact, Ottawa will fund up to 14 new marine protected areas and conserved
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  areas and at least 10 new national parks and freshwater national marine
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  conservation areas, and it will also fund up to 10 new national marine
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  conservation areas and 15 national urban parks with a $3.8 billion nature strategy.
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  And this is all supposed to be in development by 2030.
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  This is great news because the news that has been coming out of this administration
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  with Prime Minister Carney was the fact that, hey, we have some trouble
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  with trade with our neighbors down south because of a particular person.
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  So we are going to develop and divest some of our investments into other countries.
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  And so that means we're gonna build pipelines.
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  That means we're going to build trade agreements and things like that.
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  Well, when you build pipelines or you build any kind of infrastructure 'cause
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  you're trying to do new trade, because of the speed of that development that
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  has to happen, a lot of the times the environmental regulations get rolled back.
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  And that's been happening a lot with pipelines, with data centers, with
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  mining, and that was disappointing to see, especially from a liberal government that
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  just not long ago, but a year and a half ago, was very much in the point of like,
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  "Hey, we wanna reach net zero by 2050.
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  We are protecting areas.
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  We are trying to curb and tax carbon," which I know not
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  popular, but that's what it was.
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  So people were starting to get antsy about that, and so the new government came in.
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  Of course, President Trump got in as well, or just before that.
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  Our government was formed with Prime Minister Carney, who's got a
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  lot of international and economic experience, and he has taken the
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  country in a different route.
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  And it sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's not so good, especially
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  when it comes to the environment.
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  So I was very surprised to see this.
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  It's still a minimal in my opinion, a small contribution in terms of money,
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  $3.8 billion, but we haven't really seen a lot of that money before if it was
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  promised, and we haven't seen the action.
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  So this is the fact that they're actually putting numbers on the
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  number of marine protected areas and conserved areas and 10 national new
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  parks and all this kind of stuff.
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  And there are different designations for marine protected areas and marine
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  conservation areas and national marine conservation areas and urban
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  parks and all this kind of stuff.
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  So it all ranges in the types of protections that it could have
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  and who is going to protect that.
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  When a marine protected area in Canada gets designated, it's done by the
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  Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, and/or Fisheries and Oceans Canada,
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  as it's now called, but I'll refer to it as DFO throughout this episode.
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  That's significant.
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  That means nothing can be extracted from those areas and other conservation areas
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  have different regulations around that.
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  But this is a pretty big commitment by Canada, especially with everything
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  that's going on, which I mentioned that everything's going on.
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  Canada is home to 20% of the world's total freshwater lakes, 37% of the
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  lakes in the world, and 25% of the wetlands, and 24% of the boreal forest.
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  And it has the world's largest coastline, so it touches on the Atlantic, the
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  Arctic, and the Pacific Oceans.
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  It is 620,000 square miles of land and up to 700,000 square
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  kilometers of oceans that's gonna be protected over the next four years.
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  So last episode, I talked about how we are at 10% of global protection,
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  and that's gonna increase, and I predict that's gonna be increased.
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  This story here kind of proves that, where you're seeing a lot more commitments from
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  countries that are gonna get to that 30%.
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  Canada's just a little over halfway there in terms of its commitments
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  from a marine perspective.
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  I'm not sure from a land perspective.
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  But that's a good thing.
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  Especially with everything that's going on, these protections
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  need to stay in place and be enforced, obviously, 'cause a lot of
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  development that's going on in Canada.
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  But a lot of our coastlines are unreachable or smaller coastlines or
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  smaller cities that are around those coastlines, so that's a benefit to us
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  because there's not as much pressure.
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  But also some companies like to get away with some stuff when nobody can
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  see them, so you gotta be careful.
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  And so you still have to have policies and regulations in place,
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  and you have to hold them to that.
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  Two episodes ago we talked about the data centers, which is a big
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  push around the world, and we're seeing people stand up to those.
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  People have to watch out because companies will continue to just pound
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  and pound and countries will do that, governments will do that, pound and
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  pound until they get what they want.
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  That's happening in some countries like the US, where we're seeing oil
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  and gas development being opened up, or sanctuaries being opened up to
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  fishing, oil and gas development, some of the regulations being pulled back.
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  They'll go to the courts, organizations will bring in lawsuits against them to
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  say, "Hey, you can't do that." That will hold up in court, and now something else
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  happens, and then something else happens.
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  Now there's deep sea mining, and then there's another proposal up in Alaska
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  for oil and gas, and now it's over on the East Coast for oil and gas.
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  And it's just constant, and it's done on purpose to kinda spread us all thin
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  in terms of the people, the advocates, and the activists who are speaking
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  out against these types of actions.
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  And so you always have to be careful.
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  That's why it's important to establish and be proactive and establish
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  these marine protected areas to make sure that they stay in place.
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  And it's something that needs to be done on a regular basis.
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  And I'm glad that we're seeing this push because, you know, in Canada
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  we got some very unique ecosystems.
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  Like I mentioned before, we have Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific Oceans,
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  kelp forests, arctic waters, cold water corals, estuaries, seagrass
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  meadows, salt marshes, mud flats.
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  We got all these wonderful habitats that are the home of these amazing
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  species and a diverse set of species, which is a big thing.
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  We also have a big push on, not only including, but having
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  indigenous protected areas.
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  So they're, leading this charge in their own areas, right?
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  In their own treaty territories.
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  And I think that's a really important aspect.
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  That's something that's gonna be really great in the future.
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  We're building a university up in Nunavut, up in the Arctic,
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  which is gonna be its first ever.
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  I think that's gonna be really important having a university dedicated to
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  there, 'cause I know an environmental program will be great up there, and
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  it'll teach a lot of the indigenous knowledge systems that we've had
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  in the past that haven't been used in science-based decision-making,
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  which I think we're seeing more and more happening, where indigenous
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  decision-making is being put in place or in conglomerate with or collaboration
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  with, which I think is great to see.
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  But we also have a lot of challenges.
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  We have pipelines going in, oil and gas.
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  Offshore oil and gas is huge.
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  Shipping has become bigger even, especially with the melting in the Arctic.
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  So the Northwest Passage is, they're seeing a lot more
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  pressure than it ever has before.
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  We have fisheries conflicts.
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  We have fisheries ministers that are allowing for cod fishing when the
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  cod stocks are not doing well, and they're giving in to pressure on this.
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  And then of course, we have climate change, which is making everything worse.
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  So there's a lot of challenge in that, and protected areas are helping with that.
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  It's taking away some of those cumulative effects where fishing can't happen
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  and where destruction of habitat can't happen within that area, where maybe
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  shipping lanes have to be diverted around those protected areas, so it
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  doesn't harm any animal or any ecosystem.
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  These are all things that are really important when we look at in the future.
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  So look.
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  Canada has everything it needs to lead.
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  It hasn't signed on and ratified the high seas, which I hope it will.
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  But within its national boundaries, within its economic zone, exclusive
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  economic zone, the 200-nautical-mile EEZ, I think it's doing a really good thing.
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  And I think from a Canadian standpoint, with the longest coastline in the
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  world and with the maritime industry that we have, I think we have to
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  ask ourselves, like, what type of ocean legacy do we want to leave?
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  And I think this is a step in the right direction.
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  And I know this government that we have now has not done a great job at
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  protecting the environment steadily, but having this will help, especially with
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  all the development that's going on.
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  But I would love to hear from you.
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  If you're Canadian, non-Canadian, if you're having similar things
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  happening in your country, I would love to hear from you.
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  You can hit me up or join our community on Patreon.
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  That's speakupforblue.com/patreon.
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  If you wanna get access to the podcast and you just want the interviews
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  that we do every week, or you just want the solo episodes, I'm gonna
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  try and do two feeds in that.
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  And those will be free.
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  You don't have to join the community, which is gonna be a paid community.
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  But, you know, the idea is let's get together once a month, let's
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  have a chat, and let's talk some fun things in this community.
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  So, that's it for today's episode.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  If you wanna get ahold of me, you can hit me up on my socials in the show
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  notes, or you can also join the community.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.