N.W.T.'s Edehzhie to receive funding from Swiss-born billionaire

An American foundation has pledged $1 billion to help countries around the world, including Canada, conserve 30 per cent of the Earth's surface by 2030.

On Wednesday the Wyss Foundation's "Campaign for Nature" made the pledge to "help rapidly expand the proportion of the Earth's lands and oceans that are conserved."

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Dozens of conservation projects around the world will receive funding, including Canada's first Indigenous Protected Area, the Edehzhie in the Northwest Territories.

The foundation was established by Swiss-born medical manufacturing billionaire Hansjörg Wyss in 1998. In 2013, Wyss pledged to donate at least half of his wealth to charitable causes.

The Campaign for Nature has committed $750,000 over three years to help the N.W.T.'s Dehcho First Nations establish an Indigenous Guardians program to conduct on-the-ground co-management of the Edehzhie Indigenous Protected Area.

Earlier this month, the Canadian government along with the Dehcho announced the creation of the 14,000-square-kilometre Edehzhie protected area. Since time immemorial, the Dehcho people have used the area for hunting and other traditional activities.

"I developed a lifelong commitment to conservation as a young man when I saw too much destruction in the Swiss mountain valleys by ski lifts and by dams," said Wyss during a conference call Wednesday.

"I then discovered there is the possibility of keeping land preserved when I was a young exchange student in the Rocky Mountains in 1958 and discovered public lands — how great they are and how they enrich your spirit."

The foundation also pledged money to support efforts to significantly raise global targets for marine and land protection. Those targets are expected to be updated at the 2020 Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties in China.

The foundation is also calling on world leaders to commit to protecting at least 30 per cent of the planet by 2030.

Money has also been set aside for the National Geographic Society to raise public awareness on the need for conservation. The society will highlight the successes and challenges of different conservation efforts.

The Foundation is also funding a number of other projects including the creation of a more than 200,000-acre sustainable agriculture zone and protected area in Australia.