Ottawa has big ambitions but little research when it comes to setting aside the most valuable areas for conservation. Never fear, the mapping scientists are here.
In 2017 conservation scientist Aerin Jacob was invited to join an expert team charged with advising the Canadian government on ways to meet its conservation targets. The team was asked to identify areas that provide important ecosystem services — such as landscape-based carbon storage, flood prevention, fresh water and food resources and outdoor recreation — so they could be taken into account when deciding where to put new protected areas.
But there was just one problem: that information didn’t exist. Read more in The Narwhal.