Biodiversity Conference Commits to Protect 30% of Natural World

A UN biodiversity conference called COP15 has ended with a deal involving 196 countries. Find out why environmentalists are hailing it as a landmark agreement, and what it will take to put its terms in place.

In grade seven, we took a field trip to the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre near Midland, Ontario. It consists of 3,000 acres of wetlands and woodlands along the shores of Georgian Bay in the Great Lakes.

We wandered through the marshlands in rubber boots, encountering frogs, turtles and snakes. For most of us, it was our first close encounter with a conservation area.

We spent the night there, and then spent a day at the Ste. Marie Among the Hurons National Historic Site. It’s a recreation of a mission the Jesuits established in the midst of one of Canada’s First Nations in the 17th century.

Collision of Settlers, Indigenous Peoples and Environment

The mission’s story is a microcosm of the collision between colonial settlers, indigenous peoples and the natural environment that took place throughout the Americas. It’s a tragedy involving martyrdom, disease and devastation.

Fifty years later, nature conservation and acknowledging the role of Indigenous peoples in protecting…