Canada has failed to meet its promise to protect a quarter of the country’s lands and waters by the end 2025, a trio of new federal audits shows.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Parks Canada aren’t on track to meet conservation targets for terrestrial or marine areas by year’s end, reports from environment and sustainable development commissioner Jerry DeMarco show.

The ministries also don’t have adequate plans to achieve their pending 2030 goal of protecting 30 per cent of the country’s inland waters, oceans or lands vital to tackling the biodiversity and climate crisis, DeMarco said in a statement Thursday. DeMarco said in astatement Thursday.

The three separate, but related, audits examined the ministries’ progress to preserve key land, fresh water, marine and coastal areas, and to cooperatively manage conservation areas with Indigenous partners.

As of March, ECCC and Parks Canada had only protected 13.8 per cent of lands and fresh waters rather than the 25 per cent target. Additionally, the two ministries, in partnership with DFO, were also behind achieving the same threshold, with only 15.5 per cent of marine areas protected.

The audits were more congratulatory about the ministries’ cooperative work with Indigenous partners, although there were some caveats.

Progress was made on long-term goals through annual funding and resources, such as training, for Indigenous partners, DeMarco said. Indigenous knowledge, values and priorities were also included in management plans for protected areas. However, the audit highlighted some red flags, particularly insufficient federal funding to support the Indigenous conservation programs and policies over the long-term.

Liberals lack the roadmap — and the resources — to meet conservation promises, new federal audits show.

Overall, weak planning and the lack of critical information by the three ministries also threaten the federal government’s ability to reach its 2030 targets, said the audit. Current plans around preserving lands and freshwater don’t ensure quality conservation areas that protect a range of habitats, and establish connectivity between protected areas that preserve the health of ecosystems and wildlife, the audit found.

“We found that [ECCC and Parks Canada] did not consistently consider or track progress on these qualitative elements, which would help them prioritize areas for protection,” DeMarco said.

Things are much the same when it comes to ocean protections, he added. The two ministries and DFO have no blueprint to meet the 30 by 30 target for marine-protected areas (MPAs) that focus on the hotspots vital for marine life and ocean ecosystems.

Potential marine-protected areas have been identified, but the three federal agencies don’t have an updated methodology to meet the quantity or quality benchmarks of the conservation areas, the commissioner said.

“We also found that the organizations had not developed clear guidance to implement the federal marine protection standard, which is intended to prohibit harmful activities such as oil and gas exploration and bottom trawling in protected and conserved areas,” he said.

Canada promised to enact minimum protection standards for federal MPAs that would prohibit bottom trawling, oil and gas, mining, and dumping in 2019. It reiterated that commitment in 2023, but formal regulations are still outstanding.

The three ministries agreed to all the commissioner’s audit recommendations and committed to complete the regulations by March 2027.

DFO welcomes the commissioner’s recommendations and the role audits play in strengthening the department’s work and accountability, a ministry email stated.

The department must balance environmental protections, while working with Indigenous partners and the commercial fishing sector, to reach its 2030 conservation goals, the ministry added.

Canada has made significant progress in marine conservation since 2015, moving from protecting a mere one per cent of the coast to a combined area greater than the UK and France.

“While we are not yet at the 25 per cent mark, the ground we’ve gained puts us on a strong path to achieving our marine conservation goals,” DFO said.

“Building strong, trusting partnerships with Indigenous Peoples takes time – but it is important and necessary to do this right,” the agency said.

The audits clearly show Canada is struggling to meet its domestic and international commitments to champion nature, said James Snider, vice president of science, knowledge and innovation at WWF-Canada.

The federal Liberals first committed to the 2025 nature conservation targets in 2019. Canada upped the game and agreed to meet the 30 by 30 targets set in the globalKunming-Montreal Biodiversity pact crafted in Montreal, urging other world leaders to do the same in December 2022.

“Canada has been a champion of all these ambitious targets,” said Snider.

“[However,] there’s a considerable gap between the ambition that we’ve stated and where we are today.”

Conservation goals can’t solely be focused on the quantity of areas protected, he added.

“The quality of protection is a big part of this conversation as well,” he said.

Failing to meet the 2030 targets will damage Canada’s credibility on the world stage, Snider said, adding it’s urgent that the Liberals under Prime Minister Mark Carney renew past commitments to invest in biodiversity protections.

The environmental commissioner’s audits underscore that more work and resources are needed to meet the promised biodiversity benchmarks, he said.

“That’s in sharp contrast with the federal budget we saw earlier in the week,” Snider said. New funding to commitments for conservation goals was conspicuously absent,” he said.

Canada’s nature is fundamental to the country’s natural wealth and development, he added.

“It is not the economy versus nature. The two can go hand in hand,” Snider said.

“The big question mark is, where does this fit amongst the priorities for the government.”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer