Our new paper is out today in @ERLjournal on ecosystem services in Canada for conservation planning! ( https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abc121)

We mapped hotspots of carbon storage, freshwater, and outdoor recreations across the country. Here are the main messages.

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1. You can't just map where nature has the potential to provide benefits/ecosystem services. You also need to understand where people are, where the demand for nature's benefits is located, and how people can access these benefits.

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2. Overlapping hotspots (top 20% of values) for carbon, freshwater, and recreation are extremely limited in Canada. Only 0.6% (56,000 km2) of Canada's land area has this overlap (and almost all of this is in Manitoba!) #Manitobaforthewin.

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3. Canada's current protected areas network favours areas that have high capacity to provide ecosystem services, but misses out on those where there is high human demand for these benefits(e.g., southern Canada).

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4. One-half to two-thirds of ecosystem service hotspots overlap with current natural resource tenures (logging, oil and gas, mining). Conserving these areas requires multi-stakeholder consultation and planning.

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5. As Canada looks to protect #30by30, there are opportunities to conserve biodiversity and nature's benefits together. But this will require hard work, consultation, planning, and creative conservation solutions.

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6. Explore the data and hotspots yourself here: https://forbasin.forestry.ubc.ca/ES_CAN/ 

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7. And a huge thanks to the all coauthors on the paper!

@Aerin_J @RicSchuster @KaiChanUBC @ElenaBennett @Ciara_RH @Dalal_EL_Hanna @CamODallaire @Global_HydroLAB