Village Joins National Conservation Network

Lions Bay latest to join Protected Areas initiative

The Village of Lions Bay has announced the registration of almost 15 hectares of forest with the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD).

The announcement last week noted that the registered land is all forested area that provides vital wildlife habitat within the municipal watershed. The CPCAD has a goal of protecting 30% of lands and waters across the nation by 2030.

Village Councillor Neville Abbott, who spearheaded this initiative, says there has been no change in land-use designation and the registration came at no cost to the municipality or residents. He notes the land has already been protected for many years in the Official Community Plan (OCP).

Abbott says he first became aware of the initiative through a letter received by Council in September, 2023 that invited members of Council to attend an information session. He learned that BC Nature received funding through Nature Canada’s Municipal Protected Areas Program (MPAP) to assess already-protected municipal land in BC for inclusion in the CPCAD.

Designated protected lands in blue. Map: BC Nature.

"Based on what I learned, our Green Belt seemed a perfect fit," he says. "I took the idea to Council in November 2023, where a resolution to move ahead passed. The land lies within our municipal boundaries, so the decision rested with Council."

The land is part of the OCP-designated green belt and lies above the eastern edge of the Village, as can be seen in the map, above.

"There’s no day-to-day change," says Abbott. "It is simply a matter of registering what we have already put in place to further Canada’s '30 by 30' commitment to protect 30% of our land by 2030."

He notes that in his report to Council in support of moving ahead with this initiative that:

• Lions Bay zoning already aligns with this program, no changes are necessary.

• This is consistent with our Official Community Plan & Regional Context Statement and also the Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy which designates these lands for conservation and recreation.

• Lions Bay Geographic Information System data needs updating, and this initiative will allow that to happen with support from MPAP.

Whistler recently registered 126 hectares of their protected forest lands with the program, as have many other municipalities across the country. More information on the program can be found HERE.

The government's '30 by 30' target came out of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, when Canada committed to protect 30 percent of the nation's land, water and marine areas by 2030 in order to respond to two of our planet’s largest environmental threats: climate change and biodiversity loss.

The current initiative represents about six percent of Lions Bay's 255-hectare total area, and Abbott says there is another section of land of a similar size earmarked on the north side of the Village which is in the works for registration. This second section was submitted at the same time as the first, but Abbott says it has a more complicated registration of ownership involving the Province and is taking slightly longer than expected.

He notes that small communities are not expected to adhere to the national goal.

"There is no goal to achieve the 30 percent target within the Village," said Abbott. "This is a national target, and we are just registering what has already been protected."

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