Reaction: Canada Signs Two New Agreements to Support Provinces and Indigenous Leadership in Conservation

The Government of Canada has signed two new agreements to protect and restore Canada’s natural heritage.

On March 7, 2025, the Province of Manitoba and the Government of Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance nature protection and climate adaptation. This agreement will commit up to $2 million over the next year to enable Indigenous participation in the development of the final nature agreement and to advance early conservation actions in Manitoba, including the establishment of a protected area in the Seal River Watershed. The agreement also cements Manitoba’s commitment to protecting and conserving 30% of its lands and waters by 2030 and also commits their involvement in meeting the targets of the 2030 Nature Strategy.

This agreement was announced just days after the feasibility study for the establishment an Indigenous-led conservation project in the Seal River Watershed of Northern Manitoba was completed. The study found that the 50,000-square-kilometres of land surrounding the Seal River — which is home to caribou, polar bears, seals, beluga whales, wolves, moose, wolverines and several species of fish and migratory birds — should be protected by all levels of government and recommends that negotiations begin to explore protection opportunities. This comes after an agreement to begin the process of establishing a protected area with Indigenous leadership was signed by the Manitoba government and Parks Canada in January 2024.

Then, on March 10, 2025, the Province of Québec and the Government of Canada signed a Nature Agreement. In this agreement, the federal government has announced that it will invest up to $100 million between now and 2027 to support the objectives of Québec’s own 2030 Nature Plan and Canada’s 2030 Nature Strategy. The Province of Québec announced its 2030 Nature Plan in 2024 based on the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. The announcement came with almost $1 Billion in provincial funding allocations. Nearly a third of the federal funding provided under this agreement will be to support Indigenous-led conservation.

Québec joins the governments of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia, and with the First Nations Leadership Council in signing a Nature Agreement with the federal government.