The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) is set to launch a province-specific, online Habitat and Biodiversity Assessment Tool (HBAT).
The $1.2-million project, which began in 2020 with financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) as part of the Canada Nature Fund, was completed in collaboration with national and provincial stakeholder committees, governments, Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) delivery agents and agricultural associations.
The extension and awareness tool will allow producers the opportunity to gain an understanding of important habitats and biodiversity on their land and the stewardship opportunities they could implement to sustain them. Being province specific, it is based on the potential for species to occur in an area. It also avoids sensitive information from being released regarding actual native species observations.
The Habitat and Biodiversity Assessment Tool is currently available for Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The CFGA will launch tools for British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Québec in the winter of 2025.
A webinar series featuring provincial HBATs that have already launched or will launch will be hosted by CFGA this fall. These webinars feature HBATs across different provinces and include discussion and a demonstration of the tool and outcomes and potential impacts from across each region.
The first session took place last week and featured the Alberta HBAT. The next sessions will take place Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 and 13, 2024, at 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. MT. (You can register here.)
