British ColumbiaCities and towns across B.C. are trying to help the country meet an ambitious conservation goal of protecting 30 per cent of its lands and waters by 2030. While the square kilometres are adding up, Canada needs to double what’s been done so far to meet its goal.Protected lands in cities and towns now part of federal database, but millions of hectares still neededChad Pawson · CBC News · Posted: Nov 23, 2025 8:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The view at Minnekhada Regional Park in Coquitlam, B.C. The park is listed in a federal database of protected lands in Canada. (Nav Rahi/CBC News)Cities and towns across B.C. are trying to help the country meet an ambitious conservation goal of protecting 30 per cent of its lands and waters by 2030, and while the square kilometres are adding up, the country still needs millions more.“We might not achieve the 30X30, but we’ve made a huge effort and we’ve increased peoples’ awareness of the importance of biodiversity within their local areas,” said Andrew Banks with B.C. Nature.The organization, a federation of 65 naturalist groups, has had a small team of workers aiding municipal governments through a national program to assess lands that meet federal criteria for inclusion in the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database. The conservation is meant to help Canada mitigate climate change.In 2024 alone, several municipalities such as Vancouver, Bowen Island and the Village of Lions Bay have contributed square kilometres of parks or natural areas that are off limits to development.“It’s just natural forest,” said Lions Bay Coun. Neville Abbott about the nearly 0.15 square kilometres added to the database this past summer, which is at the base of a North Shore mountain that provides vital wildlife habitat, in addition to being a hiking destination.Lions Bay has around 1,400 residents, and many strongly associate with protecting its surrounding nature.“Although we have a very small amount of land in the village of Lions Bay it was just, ‘What can we do to be part of this and help achieve that 30X30 goal?’” Abbott said.Village of Lions Bay Coun. Neville Abbott stands on a hiking trail that is part of a protected, natural area in the municipality that’s now part of Canada’s 30X30 conservation goal. (Hunter Soo/CBC)Several B.C. communities are saying the same about sites close to or in urban settings that have some of the most valuable natural parcels of land in the country, according to Banks.“We need to promote that and we need to let people know and acknowledge and be aware of biodiversity in these areas,” Banks said “And this program allows that.”Banks made the comments from Metro Vancouver’s Minnekhada Regional Park, which features forest, marsh and rocky outcroppings for plants and wildlife near Coquitlam, a suburb city of nearly 150,000 residents.More than 90 per cent of the park was registered with the federal 30X30 database this past summer, “showing how protecting the parks and green spaces people love in their own communities can drive real progress,” said Dylan Rawlyk, with Nature Canada in a release announcing it.How close is Canada to meeting 30X30?Ottawa first made the 30X30 goal in 2020 with a formal commitment in 2022. It’s part of world-wide efforts to protect lands and waters to safeguard life on the planet that’s at risk from climate change.Conservationists like Shelley Luce with Sierra Club B.C. say the goal is an “absolutely critical milestone.“All of the services that we depend on, all the processes that occur in the natural world around us really need at least 30 per cent of the planet in order to function properly in a way that supports all of us people.”The latest federal data from December 2024 shows Canada has protected around 14 per cent of its lands and 16 per cent of its waters, meaning it requires nearly double of what’s been done so far to meet the goal.The needed 1.6 million square kilometres is “a lot,” Luce said. “We won’t find that within municipalities.”Luce is calling on governments, like B.C.’s, to do more conservation that could qualify for the 30X30 goal.In B.C., the Sierra Club has called on the province for years to transition away from logging old-growth forests, with its latest report saying despite a commitment five years ago, deferments are failing.B.C. Nature hopes municipalities in the province won’t be deterred by a perception that there’s a lack of progress towards the 30X30 goal and it wants them to measure, quantify and record their biodiverse, protected lands for the federal tally.
How B.C. municipal contributions to Canadas 30×30 conservation goal are adding up
