Hon. Diane F. Griffin: Honourable senators, conservation in Canada, especially land conservation, has been very important to me for all of my working life, whether it was as the natural areas coordinator in Alberta — that was a great job by the way — working with the Island Nature Trust and the Nature Conservancy of Canada or as a deputy minister for environment.

Also, the opportunity I’ve had to work with the volunteer organizations has primarily been in land conservation. The important part of conservation is not only the projects that are in parks and other natural areas — because, of course, you can justify those as refuges and sources of biodiversity conservation — but also in the whole general landscape; the other 85% of the landscape that’s not in parks or protected areas. How that land is managed is really important for all of us and for the world, not just for Canada. We’re lucky to have lots of space here, but we contribute to conservation throughout the world, whether it’s sequestering carbon, growing food for Canada or providing “fibre” as foresters like to refer to forests.

We’re so blessed in our country with all of that. However, I’ve mentioned lands that are in parks and other small parcels of the landscape. These protected areas in our country are relatively small. The goal is to protect many more by working on conservation projects with governments — federal, provincial, even municipal — but also with a lot of the conservation groups which have become increasingly active over the years.

I’ve been on the board of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. I plan to go back again sometime in the future. These organizations have made major contributions to assist the goals that have been espoused by the various governments in our country. They protect forests and wildlife such as the burrowing owl in Saskatchewan. We have a couple of senators behind me and across the way from Saskatchewan who I’m sure must have heard of the burrowing owl and maybe even seen them first-hand.

However, the majority of those endangered creatures are in the southern part of Canada, within 100 miles of the border with the United States. It’s in the part of Canada that is the most heavily populated and the most heavily impacted by development.

During the last few months that I have on the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, I want to ensure that we always have conservation top of mind.