Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak before the committee today. I'm Peter Kendall. I'm the executive director of Earth Rangers. I'm joined here today by our director of development, Tovah Barocas.
Earth Rangers is the kids' conservation organization. We're 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 public venues, an extensive online community, and a daily television presence. We educate several million Canadian children each year and inspire them to become directly involved in protecting animals and their habitats.
In addition to my work at Earth Rangers, I also chair a new organization called the Cornerstone Standards Council and I'm a board member of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, both of which I'll speak a little bit about later.
The goal of conservation is to maintain healthy ecosystems and the fresh air and clean water they produce. In wilderness areas, this can often be accomplished by preserving large areas of land and letting nature do the work. Unfortunately, it's not as simple in urban areas. Not only do we need to establish protected areas, but we have to actively manage them. This often requires extensive and ongoing restoration work.
One example of this I would like to share with you is at our own home, the Earth Ranger Centre. Our facility is located on 30 acres in the 800-acre Kortright Centre for Conservation in Woodbridge, Ontario. It's a beautiful urban protected area. However, two years ago we conducted a biodiversity survey of our property and found that nearly 90% of our plant biomass was invasive species. This was resulting in lower native species diversity than would have been projected.
With the help of the EcoAction program, we conducted controlled burns, did extensive native replanting, and rebuilt a historic wetland. Not only was this a very expensive program, but the work will have to be repeated on a five-year cycle. However, because of our unique situation, we were able to turn this project into a corporate volunteering program that not only gets the work done, but helps fund our organization and also spreads awareness about invasive species.
Urban conservation must also address the numerous external pressures facing urban environments, including how we handle our waste, energy, transportation, and our buildings. The cost, of course, and competition for land increases this challenge exponentially. In short, in urban areas everything we do has an impact on conservation. So urban conservation itself cannot be accomplished by one level of government or a group alone. To be successful, we need to engage all sectors of society and find innovative ways to work together so that we can address both nature's needs and people's needs.
One such example is a group I mentioned earlier, the Cornerstone Standard Council, or CSC. The CSC is a non-profit organization that's made up of a wide cross-section of aggregate producers and NGOs. We are now focused on creating and promoting a voluntary certification program for socially and environmentally responsible aggregate extraction in Ontario. This will include stronger environmental practices, stringent rehabilitation requirements, and what's proving to be the most controversial principle, responsible siting.
To give you some context for the impact a program like this could have, the best information I could find currently indicates that the aggregate industry in Ontario currently has licences on roughly 170,000 hectares. While it's in no way an apples-to-apples comparison, the NCC, Canada's leading land conservation organization, has protected 17,000 hectares since 1969. The proposed Rouge Park is roughly 6,000 hectares. What's more, this program will be developed for less than $1 million and will be self-financing through industry contributions.
Another good local example of working together is the greenbelt in Toronto. The greenbelt is the result of 30 years of political leadership from all parties, combined with NGO and industry support. It's now considered to be one of the strongest and most successful greenbelts in the world and provides the protection of over 1.8 million acres.
Neither of these programs would have been possible without significant public engagement. How do we generate this type of engagement? At Earth Rangers, we believe the best audience to start with is children. In a recent U.K. study, 24% of parents cited children as their key motivator on sustainability and concluded that children are more powerful in getting environmental ideas across than either politicians or the media. So how do you get children more engaged in conservation?
In 2009 we did a major study across North America with 8- to 12-year-olds to look at this very question. The first thing we found was that the children's number one concern was endangered animals and their habitats. This was not surprising. Interestingly, however, they went on to say that they were tired of being told to turn off the water when they brushed their teeth and turn off the lights when they left the room. They wanted to get involved in ways that had a direct impact on helping animals. For kids, education and small actions are not enough to produce a conservation ethic. They really need to see those tangible results.
To respond to this, Earth Rangers launched a new program called Bring Back the Wild. This program allows children to become involved, primarily through fundraising, in one of the conservation programs we're working on across Canada.
This year's programs include supporting Environment Canada scientists studying the impact of climate change on polar bears, rebuilding habitat in the Southern Norfolk Sand Plain for American badgers, creating a wetland in Vancouver and reintroducing the Oregon spotted frog, and acquiring land and studying the migration patterns of wood thrush in Quebec.
Since we launched this program in 2010, nearly 250,000 children have joined us in these efforts and have collectively raised close to a million dollars for these projects. But it's not just about the dollars raised. The real impact of these programs can best be understood through the letters we receive almost daily from children and parents across the country.
I want to share a letter we recently received from the parent of Grayson, one of our newest Earth Ranger members in Manitoba:
This program is such a wonderful opportunity for kids to get involved with their environment and learn a lot about it. Grayson is only 6 but has such drive. He hates seeing litter and says, “I want my revenge on them!” We couldn't be more proud!! I think this will become a yearly thing for us. It allowed us as a family to get together and learn about the wood thrush and teach very valuable lessons to our son.
And children are not alone in this desire to take meaningful action. To drive long-term change, programs need to have very direct outcomes, and we need to do a better job of celebrating their success.
This brings me to my recommendations for the role the federal government can play in urban conservation.
First, I think it's very important that you “walk the talk” yourself and ensure leading stewardship of your own lands and buildings in urban areas. Protecting and maintaining federal lands is an important component of respecting the investment of Canadian taxpayers.
Second is to encourage and support innovative collaborations through your funding programs. EcoAction is actually a great example of this. Focus on projects that will demonstrate direct, positive outcomes and will not require long-term government funding, but instead are projects for which your contributions will help their efforts to become sustainable.
Finally, and almost most important to me, is to celebrate success. People, I think, are tired of negative environmental messaging and the characterization of Canada as an environmental laggard. Canadians are world leaders in conservation. This is often overlooked. We built the world's first national park service. We have protected more than 12.4 million hectares. And we've developed innovative partnerships, such as the Boreal Forest Agreement and CFC. Canadians need to celebrate the success and feel empowered to make a difference, because we have plenty to be proud of.
Thank you. I'd be pleased to respond to any questions.