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Story 25 Nov, 2024

Supporting Communities, Maintaining Biodiversity

Ducks Unlimited Canada is Canada’s largest land conservancy, focused on conserving the
country’s wetlands

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Canadian wetland

Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) was founded in 1938, when severe drought conditions across the US Great Plains and Canadian Prairies, coupled with previous decades of wetland habitat loss, led to a dramatic decline in waterfowl populations. Conservation-minded outdoor enthusiasts and hunters took action to restore and conserve these crucial habitats.

DUC’s work is critical because wetlands provide essential services, such as water filtration, flood and drought mitigation, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat.

With the degradation and loss of these habitats an ongoing concern, DUC’s conservation and restoration efforts help maintain biodiversity, support sustainable communities and mitigate the impacts of climate change. There is also a social benefit to our
work, including cultural heritage preservation, recreation and wellbeing through access to nature.

We are the largest land conservancy in Canada, with 13,575 projects across the country, representing over 6.2 million acres. Last year, in partnership with Nature Conservancy of Canada, we entered into the largest conservation agreement in Canadian history with the McIntyre Ranch in Alberta.

The 55,000-acre ranch is one of the largest remaining tracts of intact prairie grasslands and wetlands in Canada. Our conservation programmes are founded in science and our research institute recently celebrated its 800th science publication.

Nature doesn’t observe borders and neither do we.

DUC works in partnership with sister organisations in the United States (DU Inc) and Mexico (DUMAC), sharing research, resources and strategies to maximise conservation impact. On a continental scale, DUC’s work is important because over 70% of North America’s waterfowl are born in Canada. This international partnership enhances our ability to address large-scale environmental challenges, like our transborder collaboration to improve the health of the Great Lakes and St Lawrence ecosystem – a region that houses over half of the Canadian population.

As a non-profit organisation, ongoing funding is critical to advancing our mission, and we’re proud to be participating in the largest continental conservation campaign in our organisation’s history. Collectively, with DU Inc and DUMAC, we’re on track to raise $3 billion over the seven-year campaign ending in 2026.

We are also proud of landmark partnerships including Nature Force, a collective of 17 leading P&C insurance organisations leading by example through investment in Nature-based Solutions for flood attenuation.

Canada is supporting a growing population, while facing the global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. Educating on the importance of habitat conservation and advocating for investment in Nature-based Solutions is a priority. Advancing science, technology and data is an important step towards the development of robust decision-making tools. DUC continues to work towards a comprehensive wetland inventory and has recently developed a biodiversity tool. With improved data models, land-use management policies could consider the full value of conserving and restoring habitats like wetlands based on the ecological goods and services provided, and communities could fully consider the costs of investing in climate resilience compared to the costs of emergency response and disaster recovery.

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