Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members for inviting us to appear before you today to contribute to your study on the development of a national conservation plan for Canada.
To help you understand our thoughts, we felt it was important for us first to say a few words about the Earth Rangers and our programs.
Earth Rangers is a national NGO focused on communicating a positive, science-based message to children on the importance of protecting biodiversity. Through our live programs in schools and community venues, our extensive online community and almost daily television presence, we educate well over a million children each year and inspire them to become directly involved in protecting animals and their habitats through our bring back the wild program.
In thinking about the purpose and goals of a national conservation plan, we tried to imagine what would be important to our stakeholders, namely children.
A number of years ago we undertook a major study right across North America on what environmental issues children cared about and what would motivate them to get more involved. The results of that study were very clear: Children's number one concern is the protection of habitat and wildlife. The children went on to say that in order to get involved, they wanted to ensure that their actions were having a direct impact on helping wildlife. To understand this commitment of kids, I want to share a couple of the thousands of letters and comments we receive from children each year.
The first one is from Jill, age 7:
I always have loved animals and when I donated $50 for the peregrine falcon, I was so glad I was finally able to do something for an animal. My whole life I’ve wanted to help animals. The way you get people to help animals is amazing!
The second one is from Alex, age 9:
My name is Alex and I am an Earth Ranger. I love animals – all kinds of animals. That’s why I became an Earth Ranger. When I grow up I want to be a veterinarian. I chose to help protect the woodland caribou because it was Christmas and Santa needs his reindeer. Canada has so many awesome animals. When I grow up I don’t want all of our amazing animals to be gone. I think more kids should become Earth Rangers because it is up to us to save the wild animals of Canada. My name is Alex and I love animals.
At Earth Rangers we have a very ambitious vision, and that's to protect enough habitat together to ensure the long-term survival of all species in Canada. We and the children we work with believe that the purpose, goal, and guiding principle of a national conservation plan should be to mobilize and bring together Canadians in their efforts to protect our biodiversity.
We also believe that in order for a national conservation plan to be successful, it needs to include more than the creation of just protected areas and better practices on working lands and waterscapes. Biodiversity is also heavily impacted by the choices we make in our everyday lives. Our transportation, food, consumer goods, and energy choices all have an impact on biodiversity.
The good news is that we have the technology and know-how to live more sustainably. An example of this is the Earth Rangers Centre for Sustainable Technology. The centre uses less than a quarter of the energy of an average Canadian commercial building. We continue to cut that energy use by over 10% a year through new technologies and better practices.
As a result, we strongly believe that a national conservation plan should include a significant public outreach and education component. We personally believe the best place to start that outreach is with children. Children care deeply about these issues and are ready to take action. We can really see this through our bring back the wild program.
This program enables kids to raise funds to help support one of four different wildlife habitat protection, research or restoration projects across the country. We only launched this program in April 2010 and already we've seen over 200,000 children across the country holding art sales, selling cakes and cookies, setting up lemonade stands, giving up their Christmas and birthday presents, selling buttons, and going door-to-door to raise funds and raise awareness, all in the name of helping wildlife.
Not only do children themselves care deeply, but they can also be an incredible influence on their parents and other adults. Our earth rangers have the desire and can be a very powerful force for change.
I have a cute example of how much of an impact this can have. It happened just this past weekend.
One of our earth rangers, seven-year-old Winter Slade, decided to have a bring back the wild birthday party and asked her friends to donate to her campaign instead of buying gifts. One day after school last week, as she was telling her friends about her birthday party idea, Winter overheard some of her friends' parents making fun of her. One mother actually asked why she would do that, that it was a stupid idea. Winter and her mother took action and posted the story online. Over the next two days, Winter received thousands of emails and comments from adults all around the world. The story landed on the front page of the Huffington Post. Hundreds of people stepped up and donated to her campaign, allowing her to exceed her original goal of raising $500. As of today she has raised well over $5,000.
I want to share one of the comments sent to Winter, as I think it speaks to the impact children can have on adults. This is from an adult somewhere in the world, who didn't leave his or her name:
Winter, it is not so often that I hear of someone so young who wants to make the world a better place. When I was your age I wanted gifts, but now at my age all I want for Christmas and birthdays is to make others happy and keep the world safe. Congratulations for protecting the pine marten; I learned today when I was donating to your page that humans are their biggest threat (even more so than eagles and foxes!). So you are not only raising money for a great cause, but you are raising awareness as well. What a great way to spend a birthday!
Finally, we feel that the national conservation plan should be used to build our national pride, and here in Canada we have a great deal to be proud of. Canada built the world's first national parks service. We've protected over 12.4 million hectares and we're stewards of much of the world's remaining wild spaces. This government alone has made a number of major announcements, including a large extension to the Nahanni National Park and the establishment of a one-million-hectare national marine conservation area in western Lake Superior.
As part of the plan, governments, industry, and NGOs need to work together to celebrate these successes more. These meetings are a good indication of your desire to make all Canadians part of this discussion.
We thank you again for including us. Please note that all of us at Earth Rangers are pleased to contribute whatever we can to aid in the development of the national conservation plan.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.