ARCHIVED - Environment Canada

• To enable Canadian groups, associations and organizations to plan, manage and complete projects and initiatives aimed at protecting, conserving, enhancing and restoring habitats, sites and ecosystems;
• To encourage Canadians and Canadian organizations to become actively and concretely involved in environmental and sustainable development projects and initiatives that will result in tangible, measurable environmental benefits; and
• To increase and improve, within Canadians, the level of awareness and understanding of environmental and sustainable development issues and encourage environmentally responsible action by helping build the capacity of Canadians, Canadian groups, associations and organizations to network and form partnerships with others for the exchange and dissemination of information.

• Reduced adverse human impact on the atmosphere and on air quality;
• Understanding, and prevention or reduction of the environmental and human health threats posed by toxic substances and other substances of concern;
• Conservation of biological diversity;
• Understanding and reduction of human impacts on the health of ecosystems;
• Conservation and restoration of priority ecosystems;
• Reduced impact of weather and related hazards on health, safety and the economy; and
• Adaptation to day-to-day and longer-term changes in atmospheric, hydrological and ice conditions.

• To contribute to the recovery of endangered, threatened, and other species of concern, and to prevent other species from becoming a conservation concern, by engaging Canadians in conservation actions to benefit wildlife; and
• To enable non-government organizations, landowners, the private sector, Aboriginal organizations, educational institutions, community groups, and other levels of government to plan, manage and complete projects that will achieve the program goal.

• To support habitat projects that benefit species at risk;
• To enable Canadians to become actively and concretely involved in stewardship projects for species at risk that will result in tangible, measurable environmental benefits; and
• To improve the scientific, sociological, and economic understanding of the role stewardship has as a conservation tool.

Expected results and outcomes:

• Securing or protecting important habitat to protect species at risk and support their recovery;
• Mitigating threats to species at risk caused by human activities; and
• Supporting the implementation of other priority activities in recovery strategies or action plans, where
  these are in place or under development.

• To support and promote environmental improvements by funding community groups undertaking action, outreach and/or capacity building activities that address the following Government of Canada and Environment Canada priorities: climate change, nature, water quality and air quality;
• To lever monetary and voluntary in-kind support for environmental activities which have measurable environmental benefits; and
• To provide Canadians with the tools they need to act on their knowledge and values as individuals and members of communities in support of sustainable development.

Expected results and outcomes:

• The successful completion of community-based projects that support action, capacity building and outreach on priority environmental issues at the local and regional levels;
• Measurable results that are supportive of the Government of Canada's climate change objectives, as detailed in the Climate Change Plan for Canada and the One-Tonne Challenge; and
• Measurable results those are supportive of Environment Canada's Clean Environment and Nature business lines.