Why Conservation Belongs in Canada's Economic Strategy

As Canada faces economic and environmental pressures, the conservation economy offers a pathway to growth through Indigenous partnership, sustainable investment and long-term stewardship. 

Canada is at a crossroads. International tensions reshaping global trade, coupled with growing demand for the resources needed to power technological innovation, have heightened concerns about the country’s economic resilience, prompting renewed interest in resource-intensive projects.

Projects such as the proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline highlight the competing pressures at play as Canada seeks to strengthen its economy while upholding its environmental and social commitments.

Trade relationships with the U.S. (including the U.S. declining to renew CUSMA and the imposition of tariffs on key products) are set to put the Canadian economy under significant pressure. In response, the government has been pursuing numerous international deals to diversify its trade partners and ensure downside protection against an expected economic slowdown. 

At the same time, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada passed legislation to implement in 2021, calls for meaningful consultation aimed at obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects that affect their lands and resources. Recognition of land rights remains contested, and the harms are both historical and current. First Nations leaders said they were blindsided by the pipeline announcement and called for more meaningful consultation.

Canada also has environmental commitments and targets to consider. In 2022, the country joined 195 others in committing to protect 30 per cent of the world’s lands and waters, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, by 2030, a target known as 30X30. At the end of 2025, Canada had conserved 14 per cent of its land and freshwater and 15.5 per cent of its marine territory. Experts warn that added tanker traffic from the West Coast Oil Pipeline would devastate the habitat of marine species at risk in the area. The government’s own nature strategy also states there is “no path to 30X30 without Indigenous leadership.”

Pressures like these usually force trade-offs. The conservation economy is one of the few places where they can be made to align. While it is modest in scale and unlikely to carry the Canadian economy on its own, it is growing and already generating measurable returns, which can help Canada build a stronger, diversified and more resilient economy.

Beyond trade-offs

Economic activities that generate wealth (e.g., revenue, job creation) while achieving positive conservation outcomes and human well-being benefits are at the heart of the conservation economy.

While initiatives can be led by many actors — governments, businesses, or even civil society organizations — Indigenous peoples have been embracing the concept as an alternative that respects their rights and preserves the ecosystems they depend on, while generating economic resources for their communities.

It’s an economic model that has gained renewed attention in recent years, but its modern origins date back to the 1990s, when organizations like Ecotrust Canada began working with coastal and Indigenous communities to develop place-based economies.

Today, Ecotrust Canada’s work spans natural climate solutions, clean and affordable energy, local and sustainable housing, community fisheries management, and local food supply chains. The practices that the conservation economy describes, built on long-term stewardship of lands and waters, are far older: Indigenous nations have sustained them for generations.

Over half of the world’s total GDP, an estimated US$58 trillion, is exposed to material nature-related risk. Aside from the immediate and direct benefits that the conservation economy could generate for local communities, there is also the long-term value it creates by preventing future environmental damage. For instance, in Canada, it is estimated that forests and wetlands protect 3.7 million people in cities and towns across the country. Another 20.1 million people and businesses also indirectly benefit from nature-based flood protection.

The conservation economy in practice

The conservation economy remains unevenly developed, varying sharply by jurisdiction. The evidence that it works, however, is no longer speculative.

Research from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society found that every dollar invested (by governments and non-profits) in protected and conserved areas generated $3.62 in visitor spending in 2023-2024, supporting 150,000 jobs and contributing $10.9 billion to Canada's economy.

A diverse range of activities drive the conservation economy, creating opportunities for local communities and private companies across industries, sizes and locations. Many of these activities are intentionally structured as Indigenous-led initiatives or collaborative efforts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, including:

• Ecotourism: Travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, supports local communities and fosters environmental education. For example, Scoop Lake Outfitters, a non-Indigenous guide outfitter offering hunting, fishing and lodging experiences, operates within the proposed Dene Kʼéh Kusān Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA), part of the Kaska Dena’s traditional territory. This company works in close relationship with the Kaska Dena, demonstrating that commercial operations can play environmental stewardship roles and operate within Indigenous-led conservation areas rather than in tension with them. 

• Conservation finance: The means through which financing and revenues can be generated for investments in nature. Conservation finance tools range from green bonds and carbon credits to conservation tax exemptions and payment for ecosystem services (PES). A large case example is the Indigenous-led Great Bear Sea Project Finance for Permanence (PFP), announced in 2024, in which $335 million from public and philanthropic investors will support 17 First Nations in managing their marine territories. It extends the model of the 2007 Great Bear Rainforest PFP, which supported more than 1,250 jobs and 120 businesses between 2008 and 2023. It is projected that this new project could generate more than 3,000 jobs and 200 businesses over 20 years. To date, the largest deals have relied on public and philanthropic money; private capital has entered mainly through smaller, outcomes-based contracts, like those structured by Raven Indigenous Outcomes Funds, where investors see a return only once agreed outcomes are met. The model has also been applied to conservation: in the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond, launched in 2020, investors funded habitat restoration in southern Ontario with partners including the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, and 3M Canada paid for the verified results.
  
  
• Sustainable resource management: The strategic use of natural resources to fulfill current needs, while ensuring future viability. This includes sustainable agriculture, forestry, fishing and harvesting. Responsible resource management helps reduce future economic losses by ensuring that ecosystems remain healthy and productive enough to sustain resource supplies over the long term. Mosaic Forest Management, a Canadian-owned land solutions company, has partnered with Way Key Ventures, a We Wai Kai Nation joint venture, to provide timber harvesting services on Quadra Island. The arrangement is small in scope, but it puts an Indigenous partner inside the resources sector’s contracting chain.

Building growth through partnership

The success of the conservation economy in addressing Canada’s competing pressures rests on two co-dependent conditions: effective recognition of Indigenous land and self-determination rights, and Indigenous-led stewardship.

For business, two things make this worth attention. The first is resilience: partnerships with Indigenous nations deepen domestic economic relationships at a moment when external ones may prove risky or unreliable. The second is reach: private capital can complement public and philanthropic funding, absorbing risk in exchange for returns tied to verified results.

The entry points already exist. Outcomes-based conservation finance, commercial operations inside Indigenous-led conservation areas, and Indigenous participation in resource management all function in Canada today.

Canada’s growing conservation economy has the potential to contribute to a sustainable and collaborative future. The 30X30 gap cannot be closed without Indigenous leadership and partnerships; private capital, alongside public and philanthropic funding, can help close it.