International Day for Biological Diversity 2025
Reflecting on how we protect biodiversity and build harmony with nature not just for one day, but every day.
The theme for the 2025 United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity is ‘Harmony with nature and sustainable development’. We are reflecting on this year’s theme, and what that means for forest conservation.
In partnership with the Pender Islands Conservancy Association, we were able to purchase and protect KELÁ_EKE Kingfisher Forest in perpetuity. Since becoming a protected conservation area in 2023, we have been working to heal this land through small- and large-scale ecosystem restoration activities.
In the face of the twin climate change and biodiversity crisis, protecting intact forest landscapes is more important than ever. Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems, some of the most rare and biodiverse in Canada, have become highly fragmented due to increased industry and urban development pressures. Throughout the Southern Gulf Islands, Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems have evolved unique genetic diversities island-to-island, thereby providing rare habitat and genetic refugia for a diverse array of terrestrial species.
Over 80% of Coastal Douglas-fir ecosystems occur on private lands in south coast British Columbia. People are inherently a part of these ecologies and have a role to play in stewarding these landscapes. We can help build harmony with nature by protecting, conserving, and restoring the rare biological diversity that remains on this planet.
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
