Goal 15: Life on Land

NEWS

Institutional Stewardship Initiatives

Forest Reserve

The University of Alberta has reserved approximately eight hectares of land on the south bank of the North Saskatchewan River adjacent to North Campus. Setting aside this land from development maintains an unbroken length of the river valley and helps to preserve wildlife habitat and biodiversity in the heart of the city.

U of A Botanic Garden’s Green School

In the award-winning Green School program at the University of Alberta Botanic Garden, children in grades 4-8 are immersed in the natural world for five consecutive school days. With a philosophy of “slow education,” children have time to observe, hear, smell and touch the natural world. Many first-time participants are “nature starved” and have never been in close contact with the natural world. An appreciation of the natural world, and their relationship to it, leads students to an understanding of the importance of conservation and biodiversity. Green School sows seeds that participants and their communities will reap for years to come.

Research institutes, centres & projects

Resilient Forests

Productivity and sustainability of our forest ecosystems and operations are reliant on a healthy and resilient forest. However, forest health and local communities that depend on the forest industry are both under constant threat from changes in climate and climate-induced insect outbreaks. The pace of these changes is outstripping the ability for trees to adjust to these threats. Likewise, traditional tree improvement methodologies are too slow to provide well-adapted seedlings for reforestation and achieve healthy forests for the future. Thus, Resilient Forests proposes to integrate rapidly emerging technologies (genomics and metabolic profiling) and mathematical models into existing tree breeding programs to select pest resistant and drought tolerant trees. 

Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute

The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) detects large changes in biodiversity in Alberta with the annually updated Biodiversity Intactness Index and Human Footprint Inventory. This research provides ongoing, relevant, scientifically credible information on Alberta's living resources to meet the information needs of government planners, industrial developers and local communities.