Hadley Archer

Resilient Economies, Climate and Communities

From the 2020 Impact Report

This feels like a new world. Over the last year, change has swept across every aspect of our lives, from our daily routines, to how we interact with one another, to the way we do business. Both as a global community and on a very personal level, we have felt tragedy, hardship and uncertainty. 

But it is also the same world—a world where nature nourishes us, fuels our communities, underpins our economies, and teaches our most valuable lessons. 

At Nature United, we have prioritized safety and wellbeing, and we have adjusted to new virtual realities. We know our partners have been challenged during this time, and we have listened and done everything we can to provide flexibility and additional support. 

Our work has always integrated community support, economic development and local leadership, and this year has shown our approach to be more critical than ever in building resilience. Together with our partners, we have seen extraordinary progress over the last 12 months, achieving milestones through our partnerships in the Great Bear Rainforest, bolstering the resilience of Indigenous Guardians across Canada, and securing investments for fisheries management led by First Nations. 

Protecting, managing and restoring lands provides an unshakeable foundation for new science led by Nature United to reveal the potential of natural climate solutions in Canada. We are working with 38 scientists from academia, government and other organizations, to prove that by 2030 there are feasible, practical and economically viable actions for Canada to achieve major climate benefits, as well protect biodiversity and advance local economic resilience. Indigenous leadership and knowledge is critical to this effort, as is engaging leaders across sectors and communities—this is the exciting and urgent work ahead of us. 

Our supporters have been vital to these achievements, preserving our ability as an organization to be responsive and ambitious amid unprecedented challenges. On behalf of our team, thank you for believing that Nature United’s approach is imperative for our current times, and for sharing our values and making transformative investments. 

Together, we are building resilience across this diverse and vibrant country, and we are steadily advancing towards a sustainable, prosperous future.

Celebrating the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement

2015

Of all the days I’ve spent in Great Bear Rainforest over my lifetime—spotting spirit bears with Doug Neasloss (pictured below) of the Kitasoo/Xai’Xais Nation, my first encounter of humpback whales bubble-net-feeding, and sitting by a campfire with my team listening to traditional Heiltsuk stories—one of my strongest memories of this region is a day not spent in the Great Bear at all. It’s the day when the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement was finalized in a museum hall in Vancouver.

The agreement conserves 6.4 million hectares of the largest remaining coastal temperate rainforest on Earth, banning logging on much of the land and setting stringent ecological protections on the balance. New protected areas have been created, and a path for sustainable forestry has been set. At every scale—regional, national, global—the agreement is a landmark in conservation history.

But how did we get here? How did we re-imagine the “War of the Woods”—in a province where industry, environmental groups and First Nations clashed on a battleground that remains today the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history—as the first step in bringing agreement across deeply entrenched and conflicting interests?

It took the leadership of environmental groups to set aside blockades and look for a new way of working that would bring all interests to the table, and keep them there.

It took the leadership of forestry companies to build new alliances where there had historically been conflict and division.

And it took the leadership of First Nations—the original and enduring stewards of these lands and waters—to raise their collective voice to protect what makes the Great Bear precious but also to call with equal volume for economic opportunities.

The Great Bear Agreement may not be a perfect model for conserving forests and balancing economic interests globally. But gradually, over the last decade of hard, dedicated work, it has evolved into a perfect model of leadership: a model that imagined a bold, almost unimaginable vision of what could be, that brought together disparate views and interests, and that empowered others to make that vision a reality.

It is a model that we will need as we face the great challenge of our time—to preserve natural systems while meeting the needs of people. At Nature United, it is a model we will build on, working in-step with Indigenous stewards, industry partners and governments that see critical opportunities today to lead in shaping a bright, sustainable future for Canada’s lands and waters.