Announcing the winners of the 2020 Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year Competition

Each year, Canadian Geographic puts out a call to Canadian wildlife photographers: show us the best of our country's critters. And each year, we are overwhelmed with the amazing shots of wildlife from coast to coast to coast entered in our Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year Competition. While choosing the finalists is always difficult, the winners of this year's competition showcase an incredible array of images of animals, plants and insects.

See all the winners here.

Countering climate change: how natural solutions could mitigate 78 megatonnes of emissions by 2030

In 2019, the federal government committed to invest $3 billion in natural climate solutions to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of its fight against climate change. Those solutions maximize carbon storage in forests, wetlands, grasslands and agricultural lands.

A new peer-reviewed study, “Natural Climate Solutions for Canada,” published in Science Advances on June 4, 2021, has come up with accurate estimates of the GHG mitigation potential for such habitats. Natural climate solutions have a GHG emissions mitigation potential of 78 megatonnes, enough to cut current annual national emissions by 11 per cent by 2030.

Read the story and check out an interactive chart to learn more about the mitigation pathways and potential of each habitat type here.

Building a more sustainable ocean future — one worker at a time

Along with a handful of other countries, Canada is crafting a bold new definition of what it means to profit from the sea — and who gets to do it. 

The plan is not just to build profits from the sea, but also to spread them around. And that means inviting new talent on board: women, Indigenous people, people of colour and youth. 

To help bring that new narrative alive, Canada set up the Ocean Supercluster in 2018. 

It’s an industry-led, government-sponsored not-for-profit that brings together marine enterprises that might never otherwise have met. The goal is speeding up “blue economy” innovations and their commercialization. The federal government has pledged $153 million, to be matched by industry. 

Two innovative Supercluster collaborations foresee a bright future for an ocean workforce invested in the success of a blue ocean economy — the blue futures pathway project and the Indigenous career pivot project. Together they will support thousands of blue careers over time.

Documentary debut! NFB world
premiere of The Lake Winnipeg Project

On Monday, June 21, the National Film Board will release the Lake Winnipeg Project, a four-part documentary on the Anishinaabe, Cree and Métis communities who live on one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes.  

Canadian Geographic interviewed Anishinaabe/Cree director Kevin Settee (above) about why he chose to make this documentary series, how he chose his subjects and what he wants Canadians to understand about Lake Winnipeg and the people who call it home.

Read the interview here.