The Indigenous Leadership Initiative is a leading voice in Canada. We are partners in a seven-year research project called the conservation through reconciliation partnership, which supports indigenous leadership and conservation and indigenous guardians.
Experts around the world agree that biodiversity loss is accelerating at unprecedented rates and biodiversity loss affects our climate, just as climate change affects our lands and waters. These values exist on indigenous lands because they are stewarded by indigenous peoples. We bring a unique knowledge and a millennia of experience in managing these areas.
Canada has recently announced that it will protect 25% of its lands and waters by 2025, and 30% by 2030. As the Prime Minister recently acknowledged, indigenous partnership is essential to achieving these goals. In fact, Canada can only meet these targets by putting indigenous-led conservation, land-use planning, indigenous-protected and conserved areas, and indigenous stewardship and guardian programs at the very heart of its nature conservation strategy.
We are already working together and leading the way in helping Canada achieve its biodiversity conservation targets. The vast majority of new protected areas in recent years have been designed, established and managed by and with indigenous communities. The Canada nature fund, created in 2018, provided important start-up funds for this work, but more needs to be done to help achieve Canada's targets in ways that also support reconciliation, new economic futures for our communities and regions, and climate resiliency.
For this reason, the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, or ILI, and its partners are recommending that the Government of Canada commit to and invest $1.5 billion over five years specifically for indigenous-led conservation.
Indigenous guardians are also an essential piece of this puzzle. Guardians manage IPCAs, our indigenous-protected and conserved areas; monitor development projects from industrial interests in our territories; and revitalize cultural practices and values. They are ambassadors on behalf of their nations on the land. They are the eyes and ears for their nations, and their work benefits us all.
In part with support from the 2017 federal pilot program, there are now 70 indigenous guardian programs operating in all regions of Canada. The momentum is growing.
The Indigenous Leadership Initiative and its partners therefore recommend that the Government of Canada expand funding to support existing and new guardians. We recommend investments of $831.5 million over the next five years, ramping up to at least $300 million per year thereafter. This is consistent with the approach in Australia, where successive federal governments have invested in indigenous-protected areas and guardians-led programs called rangers for over 20 years with extraordinary results.
New federal investments for indigenous-led conservation in Canada would advance Canada's commitments to reconciliation, biodiversity and climate protection. They would also make a vital contribution to Canada's economic recovery by creating immediate jobs in indigenous communities and regions from coast to coast to coast.
At the same time, long-term federal investment should be paired with new economic tools to support indigenous-led conservation and stewardship over time. This includes conservation financing vehicles, public-private partnerships and support for new carbon markets that can incentivize and support indigenous-protected and conserved areas. For example, many indigenous-protected and conserved areas will be created in the boreal forest, home to some of the largest carbon deposits on the planet. Finding ways to value and generate ongoing revenue from the protection of these carbon stores would be critical to securing long-term management and conservation of these areas.
I have seen first-hand how indigenous-led conservation can help create a new future. For example, Lutsel K'e has signed agreements with the Government of Canada and the Government of Northwest Territories to protect the Thaidene Nëné indigenous-protected areas. It's also a national park reserve in the territorial protected and conserved areas. Three levels of government working together created this massive protected area.
We have hired indigenous guardians and this year alone we've invested over $500,000 in regional businesses to buy boats, snowmobiles and research equipment. We've been winterizing a newly purchased fishing lodge and look forward to welcoming visitors when the pandemic is over.
Earlier this year our community's work was recognized by the United Nations Development Programme with the prestigious Equator Prize, the first in Canada. This was done because of our partnership and relationships to build positive outcomes for Taidene Nëné in the region.
Support for indigenous-led conservation transcends political parties. A 2017 report by the standing committee on the environment unanimously supported indigenous guardians and greater partnership with indigenous people in nature conservation. Canadians agree: Poll after poll demonstrates a strong commitment to conserving nature and to doing it together.
Today, I encourage you to join us in building momentum in supporting this vital work as part of a new future for our country and the world.
Marsi cho.