Goal 15: Life on Land
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and biodiversity loss
Related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Research
New research partnership receives funding for wetlands
A UCalgary professor was named the new Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sands Wetland Reclamation. This program is a partnership between the University of Calgary, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), which will investigate the ecology of newly developing wetlands recovering from disturbance in landscapes reclaimed from mining.
The Biogeoscience Institute
This research institute offers researchers two field stations: the Barrier Lake Station, located in the Kananaskis Valley, and the R.B. Miller Station, located in Sheep River Provincial Park. These stations engage in extensive research on animal ecology and wildlife conservation biology, vegetation dynamics and forestry, ecosystem sustainability and environmental economics, and human, domestic animal and wildlife disease interactions. This institute hosts not only UCalgary academic courses, but also courses from the University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, SAIT and Wilfrid Laurier University.
Teaching, learning and student experience
Law professor takes lead in environmental impact assessment course
A Faculty of Law professor has recognized the need to refocus instruction of environmental impact assessments at UCalgary to align with the 2019 Impact Assessment Act. This experiential learning course actively engages students in real-world applications of environmental law, honing in on local economic, environmental and social issues, including climate change and Indigenous perspectives on resource and environmental management.
Bug research: undergrads catalogue Calgary’s insects
An undergraduate zoology course empowers students to conduct research and contribute new insect biodiversity knowledge to a City of Calgary catalogue, as well as to a crowd-sourced global repository.
Indigenous knowledge woven into natural Swann Mall redesign
Guided by the new Main Campus Landscape Plan, the new Swann Mall redesign on campus incorporates sustainability aspects from both an Indigenous and from a settler perspective. The new landscape promotes connection to the land and biodiversity, health with natural grassland and prairie roots in mind, which helps address climate change.
Campus and community impact
Campus
Through Bee City Canada, UCalgary is designated as a Bee Campus. This designation highlights the Department of Biological Sciences’ ongoing research contributions to understand bees and other beneficial insects that support agricultural and urban landscapes. UCalgary also has one of the largest bee collections in Canada, with more than 100,000 specimens in a digital archive.
Local
Living with Wildlife is a flagship model of co-existence with wildlife, providing our university family and surrounding neighbourhoods with accurate and timely information, education and safety guidelines about encountering wildlife on campus. This mandate enhances a sustainable approach while minimizing human and wildlife conflict.
National
A UCalgary-based project, initiated by the Canadian Mountain Network and based out of the University of Calgary, will provide a comprehensive view of Canada’s changing mountain systems based on Western scientific and Indigenous knowledge, the latter of which has often been overlooked by the scientific community.