Hi everyone, Sevrenne Sheppard.
I'm a Policy Analyst with the Canadian Forest Service
and I'm joining you today from Montreal.
So yeah, I'm gonna speak a bit about
our 2 Billion Trees Program,
which supports climate change, mitigation, biodiversity
and human wellbeing today.
So first bit of an overview of our program.
I can get the slide change, there we go.
So 2 Billion Trees
is part of Canada's Natural Climate Solutions Fund.
So in 2019, Canada pledged
to use Nature-based climate solutions
to provide carbon emissions reductions
while also providing important co-benefits
for human wellbeing and biodiversity.
Are you able to still hear me?
(background chatters)
It's just a bit of background noise from the rooms.
I'm not sure if...
Okay, can everyone hear me?
[Participants] Yes.
Okay, sorry about that.
Always fun to do these hybrid meetings.
So yeah, the result of that pledge was the implementation
of the Natural Climate Solutions Fund in 2021,
and the fund includes 2 Billion Trees, which is led by us,
the Canadian Forest Service, that Natural Resources Canada
and the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund as well,
which is led by Environment and Climate Change Canada,
as well as the agricultural climate solutions
led by Agriculture and AgriFood Canada.
So the goal of these programs
is to leverage the power of nature
to reduce the effects of and adapt to climate change,
all while supporting biodiversity.
Of course emissions reductions for nature-based solutions
take a lot of time, planting trees or restoring wetlands.
That's with the other programs
that can take decades to reap the full benefits.
So the way we are thinking about these programs
is that if our children and our grandchildren
are to benefit from the shade of the trees in the future,
we need to be planting those trees now.
So the ultimate goal is really to plant trees
for generations to come.
2 Billion Trees was launched as I mentioned in 2021.
So we're only a couple years old and the aim is to motivate
and support new tree planting projects across the country.
So trees that would've otherwise not been planted.
Over a period of 10 years by 2023,
up to $3.2 billion will be invested in tree planting efforts
to support province's, territories,
30 party organizations, and indigenous organizations
to plant 2 Billion Trees across Canada.
Projects funded by 2 Billion Trees
will contribute to our country's GHG emission reduction
and net zero emissions targets.
And we also aim to achieve certain co-benefits.
So that includes long-term restoration
and maintenance of forest for species at risk
and other species of interest,
increasing forest diversity and climate resilience
and enhancing the wellbeing of Canadians
for generations to come.
Over the past two years we've been working on developing
an approach to measure the impacts of funded projects
on biodiversity and human wellbeing specifically
since those are sort of the less tangible
outcomes of our program.
And some other challenges for the program
is to work with nature schedule
to make sure that we align all actors in the supply chain
and to make sure that our benefits
are really being felt across the country.
In the first year of our program,
our focus was really building a strong foundation
for long-term success.
And then since last year
the focus has shifted more to be on establishing
these longer term multi-year agreements
and ramping up the supply chain, tree planting capacity,
as well as collaborating with provinces and territories,
especially to support forest adaptation,
habitat restoration for species at risk.
So 2 Billion Trees funds are shared,
or distributed through a cost shared partnership model.
So although the program was allocated $3.2 billion
over 10 years, which is a lot,
it's still only enough to plant half the amount of trees
that we have as our goal.
So through our cost shared model,
we're looking to support organizations that have,
you know, established capacity
rather than directly entering agreements with individuals.
But we are encouraging our applicants
to work with private landowners
and individuals in their projects.
Our intent is also to work with a variety of partners
to ensure that the trees are planted
in both rural and urban areas across Canada.
So that includes on private lands, public lands,
with indigenous peoples and in municipal settings.
So each of these areas involves some specific considerations
and really requires dedicated partnerships
to make sure it's done right.
We also recognize that leadership by indigenous communities
and organizations is really critical for this initiative
and for our success, particularly when it comes to ensuring
biodiversity and wellbeing benefits.
So we've developed, or we've co-developed
a distinctions based funding stream
for indigenous life projects.
So we can distribute to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit,
the three major indigenous groups in Canada.
And finally we provide a bit of funding as well
for research that supports science
for improved planting outcomes.
So this research is guided by our recipients priorities
and by our external advisory committee
and aims to ensure the viability
and the sustainability of the trees that are planted.
So scientists at the Canadian Forest Service
are engaging with our partner departments
to coordinate and collaborate on research,
all in the support of nature-based climate solutions.
We fund three main types of projects.
So there's definitely some afforestation
but there's also reforestation as well
and habitat restoration.
And we're looking to fund projects
with a demonstrable greenhouse gas sequestration benefit.
That's really one of the main goals of this program.
But as was discussed earlier in the plenary,
it's really important to make sure
that we're not having that be our only goal.
We're trying to maximize that goal
just for the sake of meeting a certain target that we have.
We wanna be able to balance it as well with the human health
and wellbeing and the biodiversity co-benefits
and really make sure that it's site specific
and makes sense for the organization.
We also wanna make sure that we're distributing funding
to organizations that have the expertise to plant
the right tree in the right place for the right reasons
and really have that established capacity.
And we're looking to fund where possible
multi-year and long-term agreements.
Since our program began in 2021,
we've received over 440 applications.
I think the count is now 489, so getting up there.
And we've supported the planting of 110 million trees
at 2,900 sites across the country.
More than 220 tree species have been planted
and 21% of our proposals
have been from indigenous-led projects
and 26 from urban projects.
And we really expect the number of trees
and the number of sites to really ramp up
over the next decade.
This is just the first two years of planting,
where we're still developing supply chain capacity.
So we're looking forward to grow quite significantly
in the next few years.
So for the next couple of slides,
I just wanted to focus on sharing some stories of projects
that we've funded that have a focus on restoration
of forest habitat for wildlife.
So the program has $400 million in dedicated funding
for actions to specifically restore habitat
for species at risk or species of interest
with provinces and territories.
So proposals received under the restoration umbrella
are jointly evaluated by us at the Forest Service
as well as by the Canadian Wildlife Service.
And there's a bit of a higher cost share
by the federal government just to account for the complexity
and expense that often comes with these projects.
So 2 Billion Trees is supporting a lot of projects
that have this restoration focus
and have these ecosystem and biodiversity benefits
that come along with it.
And as we're funding projects,
we're also having the opportunity to meet face-to-face
with some of the organizations that are leading the planting
and to visit the planted sites.
One of these great example
is Community Forest International.
So they currently have a four year agreement
with 2 Billion Trees to plant trees
as part of a restoration project in New Brunswick
and Nova Scotia in Atlantic Canada.
This project supported by 2 Billion Trees
includes planting of degraded lands that will be stewarded
for long-term climate resilience and carbon storage.
And CFI usually works on a mix of management plans
for mature forest and then restoration plans like this
for recently harvested sites.
The funding that we provided to them
was to undertake site preparation,
planning, and planting activities
and they planted 250,000 trees on previously clear cut land
located on the Chignecto Isthmus
and restored degraded wildlife habitat.
So it's really cool to see this project come to life
'cause this is such a critical land corridor
connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
and it's been identified
as a really high priority conservation area
both in Canada and internationally.
So really interesting to see
where our funding can go in these projects.
Another example is our partnership
with Redfish Restoration Society.
So this is on the other side of the country
on Vancouver Island in British Columbia
and we worked with a few First Nations
to plant 51,000 trees along the banks of the Tranquil Creek
and Atleo Rivers in partnership with Redd Fish
as well in as well as in the Hilsya harbor.
So the aim of this work was to accelerate
the recovery of the three watersheds,
which were damaged by historical logging operations
and specifically to restore critical spawning
and rearing habitat for endangered wild Chinook
and chum salmon through a holistic and innovative approach
that incorporates traditional knowledge.
We have a nine year agreement with them
to plant trees for habitat restoration.
So really looking forward to seeing
how this project evolves over time.
As the project or as the program continues
to fund more and more projects like this,
we're really looking ahead to ways
of sharing some of the last tangible impacts
like I mentioned on biodiversity and human wellbeing.
So one direction that we're exploring
is taking more of a storytelling approach
since we're doing these site visits
and we're getting these beautiful photos
and stories of funded projects
and the impacts they're having,
we really wanna find ways of sharing that
through presentations like this.
And on our website we're developing a story map,
some infographics, that type of thing,
just to visually communicate exactly what these projects
are doing in their communities and really share that
with the public as well.
So we're continuing to gather feedback
from our project partners to support this work
and refine our approach to make sure
that these important co-benefits
are accurately captured and communicated.
Just to wrap up my presentation,
I wanted to share our website so you can go there
to learn more information about the program
and if you have questions as well,
if you wanted to follow up,
I've included our email address
so you can reach out to our team directly.
Thank you very much.
And for the questions,
it's a little hard to hear in the room,
so I'm not sure if there's a way they could be
like repeated directly into the mic or put in the chat.
But just a heads up.
[Moderator] We'll try for some questions
and we'll speak up and then repeat our questions, yes.
[Attendee] I have a question.
I don't know if I missed this
and if she had said that they fund
for planting on private lands,
but I was just wondering how do you ensure
that the trees that people plant
don't get mowed down five years later?
Yeah, that's a really good question.
It's something we've discussed a lot
because our program really only has jurisdiction
over 10 years, so we can't really follow up with monitoring
beyond the date of the program.
But we only fund projects
that have the intention for permanent tree cover.
And so there's a lot that goes into creating these proposals
and you know, sharing the plans
for why the trees are being planted,
where they're being planted,
what the intention is for them long-term,
what the monitoring plan is for them long-term.
So the expectation there when they're being evaluated
is that the proposal does include a plan
for the trees to be as permanent as possible.
We also don't allow any planting
where the intention will be to harvest the timber,
and we don't allow planting
where there's a legal obligation to replant.
So it's really looking at trees
that are gonna be part of Canada's long-term forest cover
and sequester carbon and are going to be incremental
to what would normally be planted by either provinces
and territories, or by private landowners.
[Moderator] Yes.
[Attendee] Here in the US,
I've noticed a huge interest in tree planting
and thus the demand for nursery stock and seedlings
has been lagging behind that demand.
You referenced building capacity in the supply chain.
Can you tell us a little bit more about how you did that
to ensure that these new seedlings
will be available for planting?
Yeah, that's also a really great question
and it's something we've been working on
since even before the program was officially launched.
So a huge part of that is just being regularly
conducting sort of stakeholder engagement
and consultation with the nurseries
to make sure that they're prepared
for this increase in demand.
I think it's something like 40% increase
over normal demand is created just by having this program
over the 10 year period.
So we started very early engaging those stakeholders.
We also provide capacity building grants
for certain organizations.
A lot of them have been indigenous organizations
that are looking to build capacity
not just for tree planting,
but also for contributing to the supply chain
or engaging with the supply chain.
And we're exploring some other potential avenues
to sort of engage a little bit more
with the actual nurseries and build their capacity.
Just trying to figure out what that looks like
with the funding that we have now
and with our jurisdiction.
But yeah, it's definitely...
It's part of why we're not planting,
you know, exactly 10% of the trees every single year.
There's this huge ramp up that has to happen
just because of the time that it takes to produce the stock.
So we're gonna see in the next few years I think
quite a bit more planting just because the nurseries
will have caught up a bit more with the demand
and we'll have established these long-term agreements
that really help them be able to predict what is needed
and to have sort of a consistent supply,
which is really essential for these projects.
I'm not sure if there's time for another question,
but that was really great
and if you want to reach out for sure,
email us and we can get back to you
with any other questions you have.