Nature conservation – the inhabitants of England and Canada do they own thing

For 20 years, the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nations have unsuccessfully negotiated with the Canadian government to protect the Gitdisdzu Lugyeks (Kitasu Bay), an area off the coast of British Columbia. During that time, commercial overfishing was destroying the fish populations there. Kitasoo/Xai’xais have, therefore, declared the creation of a Marine Protected Area (MPA), closing the bay’s waters to commercial and sport fishing. It was possible because most First Nations in the province of British Columbia never signed treaties ceasing ownership of their lands and waters to the Canadian monarch.

The Thousand Year Trust is a fund set up by a British Afghan veteran to triple the area of UK temperate wet forests. Merlin Hanbury-Tenison has transformed a family farm with agroforestry and natural habitat regeneration, planting 100,000 trees and free-range breeding, e.g. Highland Scottish cattle.

The National Trust – a British organisation that protects monuments and nature – uses 100 head of Galloway cattle for protective grazing on several thousand hectares in the Cotswolds region. It is the most natural way to protect habitats, creating more climate-resilient shelters for wildlife. The project, which began in 2017, is seeing flower meadows bloom, natural forests recovering, wildlife corridors being created and species that were previously extinct in the UK returning.