Initiative
FREDERICTON, N.B. (Oct. 22, 2024) – The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) is in the process of launching province-specific online Habitat and Biodiversity Assessment Tool (HBAT) in provinces across the country. Working with national and provincial stakeholder committees, governments, Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) delivery agents and agricultural associations, the CFGA is in the sixth, and final, year of the $1.2-million project, which began in 2020 with financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) as part of the Canada Nature Fund.
About the tool
Designed as an extension and awareness tool, the HBAT is an online tool meant to help land managers gain an understanding of important habitats and biodiversity on their land and the stewardship opportunities they could implement to sustain them. It is based on the potential for species to occur in an area and avoids releasing sensitive information about actual native species observations.
“The HBAT provides agricultural producers with the knowledge of what native species have the potential to occur on their land based on the known or expected distribution of species, the geographic location of the farm or ranch and on the habitat types and features that are found on it,” says François Blouin, the national technical lead for the CFGA’s HBAT project. “With that knowledge, stewardship opportunities for wild species can be suggested to the producers who can then decide on what, if anything, is compatible and desirable within their operational constraints and objectives.”
The tool will be standardized in nine provinces, providing increased consistency of messaging across Canada. Tools are now available for Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan. The CFGA will launch tools for British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Québec in the winter of 2025.
Fall webinar series
As the CFGA launches into this final phase of the HBAT project, it is hosting a fall webinar series featuring provincial HBATs that have already launched or will launch this winter. These webinars feature HBATs across different provinces and include discussion and a demonstration of the tool, outcomes and impacts or potential for impact across each region.
The first session took place Oct. 16 and featured the Alberta HBAT. Lisa Nadeau, Alberta EFP director, provided a walkthrough of the Alberta HBAT, including how it’s utilized as part of the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan program, and highlighted the results of implementation.
The next sessions take place Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 and 13, 2024, at 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. MT. Register here.
More info
For more information about the HBAT project, visit the CFGA website or check out this information sheet.
Media Relations:
Trudy Kelly Forsythe, Communications, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association
506-333-4260