• How Indigenous Peoples are leading the way on global biodiversity protection
• The self-reliant duo transforming their lives to forage completely off the land
• Limnologist John Smol to be awarded prestigious Vega Medal
• An Exodus Travels adventure to Bolivia 

On a grey December day, a few blocks from Montreal’s Palais de Congrès where world leaders were gathered to hammer out a new global framework to protect biodiversity, dozens of people crammed into a large shaputuan — Innu gathering tent — across from the city’s old port. While it was chilly inside, and each gust of wind seemed like it might lift up the wood and canvas structure and blow it away, spirits were high as Indigenous leaders from Canada and around the world shared stories of their conservation wins.

Organized by the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, the space provided an opportunity for local and international delegates to hear about how Indigenous Peoples — from the rainforests of the Amazon to British Columbia — are already leading the way on biodiversity protection in their communities.

How this self-reliant duo has transformed their lives to forage completely off the land

Berries, beans, bull kelp bulbs. With a bounty like this, this B.C. couple has no need for a grocery store.

Stef Lowey and Chris Hall of Pender Island spent one year without purchasing a single morsel of food. Their entire diet for 2020 to 2021 — 100 per cent of it — came from their garden, raising chickens, pigs and other animals, and foraging from the land and sea.

Visiting their ocean-front property on north Pender Island in the southern Gulf Islands is like entering a botanical garden. More than 75 varieties of vegetables and fruits fill every nook, wedged between the trees that were already there. Starting in August 2020, the couple planted gardens in any available open space. They made a drip irrigation system from discarded hoses. Their chickens and turkeys provide rich compost. Every deck and walkway is lined with potted plants, several hundred in total. But it wasn’t always this way.

John Smol is one of the world’s foremost experts on the study of long-term environmental changes to lakes and rivers. As a professor in the Department of Biology and the School of Environmental Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., Smol, together with his team of researchers and students, has been working on many limnological and paleoecological research projects as part of his commitment to studying global environmental change. Now, he is being recognized with his field’s most prestigious award: the Vega Medal.

largest on the planet! This exciting journey is a comprehensive three-day 4WD adventure that reveals Bolivia’s eye-catching multi-coloured lagoons, cacti islands, and spouting geysers. In stark contrast to the incredible nature, visit the vibrant cities of Sucre, Potosi, and La Paz whose history and culture run deep with the Incas and the Spanish Conquistadores.

Check out these other upcoming trips:

- An Ocean Quest Adventures trip through Newfoundland
- Heli-hiking in the Cariboos with Robin Esrock
- Wildlife of the Zambezi Valley with Travis Steffens