Vision and Mission
The Corvus Centre’s vision is public policy actively supports biodiversity. Our mission is to work to ensure biodiversity is promoted through evidence-based land use, resource management, and financial decision making.
Our Role
The conservation policy process has many dimensions, so improving that process means providing support of many different types at many different points. This 3-minute video explains the role of the Corvus Centre for Conservation Policy.
Conservation Priorities
Private Land
Conservation
Some of Canada's most biodiverse areas are on privately-owned parcels. These properties play a critical role in providing habitat, linking natural systems, and keeping people connected to nature.
The Corvus Centre works with the country's private land conservation organizations, private landowners, and government agencies, undertaking research, building capacity, and working to promote this critical sector.
Nature Conservation and Local Government
Land use planning is the front lines of nature conservation. And municipalities are the front lines of land use planning. Local government decisions have tremendous power to promote nature conservation.
The Corvus Centre works with staff and councils of local governments to promote nature conservation. We develop tools, provide training, and research critical policy areas, helping to support the land ethic that exists at the local government level.
Provincial and Federal Nature Policy
Provincial and federal decision-making frames nature policy in Canada, providing the regulatory and economic cues that set the stage for how businesses, NGOs, academia, landowners and other citizens incorporate nature conservation.
The Corvus Centre works with provincial and federal agencies, providing contextual information, policy advice, cross-sector facilitation, and other support to help jurisdictions promote biodiversity in their decision-making.
Nature NGO Capacity and Governance
Canada's nature conservation NGOs and charities are the thin line of defence against the biodiversity crisis. They lead from behind, creating engagement, promoting action, and staying focused on conserving nature while being buffeted by the fickle winds of politics and societal fads.
The Corvus Centre works with conservation NGOs to help build their internal capacity and ensure their governance structures are robust and sustainable.
Our Approach
The Corvus Centre for Conservation Policy pursues its mission by undertaking work on a project-by-project basis. While each project ties to the Conservation Priorities, it takes one of the following three approaches:
Applied Research
Projects that focus on undertaking applied research or on actively incorporating science and evidence into decision making in support of biodiversity.
Program Facilitation
Projects that focus on providing capacity, training, or expertise, or otherwise improving the ability of decision makers to deliver programs in support of biodiversity.
Knowledge Mobilization
Actively informing and catalyzing the policy discussion around biodiversity conservation, working to create background knowledge and to foster the dissemination of ideas.
Questions and Answers
What is ‘Policy’?
The Max Bell Foundation has an excellent definition of ‘public policy’:
“Official decisions that guide the activities of organizations operating in the public interest. Such organizations include governments and non-profit organizations at the local, municipal, regional, provincial, and national levels.
For example, public policy decisions can be expressed as legislation, resolutions, regulations, by-laws, appropriations, court decisions, etc.
Public policy refers not only to decisions, but also the programs and administrative practices undertaken by organizations operating in the public interest.”
What is ‘Conservation’?
Nature conservation means ensuring that the ecological processes and functions that support biodiversity persist over the long term by promoting the protection, restoration, and sustainable use of the underlying systems and what they provide.
Conservation can be thought of as a ‘hyphenated’ activity, meaning it requires many disciplines: conservation biology, conservation policy, wildlife conservation, water conservation, conservation communications, conservation law … etc.
What is ‘nature policy’?
The policy that impacts our ability to conserve nature comes in many forms. Some of those policies have names that contain the words ‘conservation’, ‘biodiversity’, ‘environment’, ‘protection’, ‘ecosystem’, etc. But most often, their names include ‘planning’, ‘management’, ‘resource’, ‘transportation’, ‘parks’, ‘development’, ‘utilities’, ‘servicing’, etc.
‘Nature policy’ is policy that can affect nature, whether its name tells you that or not.
Likewise, a ‘policy’ can use that word, but it is a broad concept, encompassing documents entitled, ‘law’, ‘act’, ‘guideline’, ‘bylaw’, ‘procedure’, ‘directive’, ‘strategy’, ‘plan’, etc. A policy can be as simple as a line in an otherwise unassuming document that guides our activities.
Isn’t policy government’s job?
Yes and no.
In its broadest terms, a policy is defined as, “a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or individual.” In simple terms, it is not what we do, but rather how we do something.
Some policies are the domain of government, like acts of the legislature, or guiding documents for how those laws will be interpreted. Others are the domain of the courts, including case law, court decisions.
As well, there are many policies that are not entirely in the public realm, which can affect nature – those of industry players, academia, NGOs, community groups.
But even ‘public policy’ is broadly defined as, “the principles, often unwritten, on which social laws are based.” In other words, government policy guides our actions, and our collective social laws guide government policy.
Policy is everyone’s job – whether they realize it or not.
Is the Corvus Centre an ‘advocacy’ organization?
Despite the 2019 clarification that charities can conduct non-partisan advocacy “for retaining, opposing, or changing any law, policy, or decision of government in furtherance of its stated charitable purpose,” it is still loaded topic.
If by ‘advocacy’ one means “advocating for nature”, then the Corvus Centre certainly does that. We also work to inform the decision-making processes of all levels of government by providing evidence-based data and information. That involves working with government leaders and the public service in pursuit of policy that better supports biodiversity, which could also be considered advocacy.
However, advocacy is not our purpose. Our primary focus is to inform and collaborate with decision makers, and to try to fill the gaps that create challenges for them in pursuing nature-positive policy.