Thank you for your question.
There are a variety of things that I think we're doing that goes to the point you're getting at. First of all, we are working hard to get the Scott Islands and the Edéhzhíe established, and it's our top priority to get those into the system formally. Of course, the Scott Islands will be our first marine national wildlife area.
There are a number of other things we're doing that are outside of the national wildlife migratory birds area that are also contributing, but perhaps not on the same kind of scale, through programs like the aboriginal fund for species at risk, the habitat stewardship program, our ecological gifts program, and the natural areas conservation program. We are also investing in protection, largely on private lands, but not only on private lands. Perhaps that is some of the highest quality biodiversity that we're protecting.
Our future steps are going to be guided by two pieces moving forward. One will be the pathway to 17%, and the work we do with provinces and territories. We are also engaging stakeholders and indigenous people to figure out where we need to go to make sure that the appropriate parts of the country are covered, that we have the right quality, and that we have the connectivity that we need. That 17% process will be one of the important vehicles we look at to figure out where we need to go from there.
The second area relates to our fulfilling our mandate, which is related to migratory birds and species at risk. Within the Canadian wildlife service, we became a branch last spring. We are developing a strategic plan that is going to guide our future endeavours and particularly where we're going to focus our work. That will be going to areas that have high value for preserving species at risk or migratory birds. It will be a bit different to our approach with the south and the north because of the different situations.
The 17% along with our own strategic plan focused on migratory birds and species at risk will guide our future activities.