BANFF – The Bow Valley Naturalists will wind up its speaker series next Tuesday (April 23) with a look at the big picture in the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative.
In the 25 years since the inception of the Y2Y vision, protected areas in the region have almost doubled and conservation-related management designations on other lands have increased more than five-fold.
Although protected areas are the cornerstone of nature conservation, alone they cannot sustain healthy populations of animals that need huge areas to move – species like grizzly bears, wolves, caribou, and wolverines.
“The added pressures of global climate change and increasing habitat fragmentation make it clear that a shift to large landscape conservation is needed,” said Y2Y’s Aerin Jacob, who is the guest speaker at the BVN event.
“This approach includes protecting core habitat areas, linking them via critical corridors, and considering the social, cultural, and economic factors that enable both people and nature thrive.”
The Y2Y vision is one of the first and best-known large landscape, collaborative conservation projects in the world. Stretching more than 3,200 kilometres across western North America, Y2Y’s success is based on a combination of rigorous science, natural resource management, and community and policy engagement across multiple jurisdictions and working with more than 350 partner groups.
Jacob conducts and communicates applied research across the Y2Y region. She has worked in research, conservation, teaching, and consulting across western North America, East Africa, and Central America and has advised governments about conservation planning, species at risk, climate change, and impact assessment.
The presentation is free and starts at 7:30 p.m. at 101 Bear St.
