You can start
Right where you are
We all belong in nature. But oftentimes, we’re made to feel like we don’t.
Despite the pull of hectic schedules, juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet, taking care of loved ones, screen addictions, and other modern day distractions and limitations, it is impossible to disconnect the human experience from the natural world. Our livelihoods depend on clean air, water, and the abundance of food, shelter, and wonder nature provides. And in turn, the plants, animals, waterways, and landscapes, rely on us to reciprocate that generosity, and to tread lightly, lovingly, now more than ever before. When we belong, we embrace the experience of feeling whole, integral, and in safe relationship with nature.
Traditional ecological knowledge teaches us that we are not separate from nature, but are rather an integral part of it. Despite this reality, we’re often made to feel disconnected or uninvited to the party outside. You might feel discouraged by parks and trails that don’t accommodate your mobility or accessibility needs, or perhaps you’ve been targeted for your race, policed for simply existing in public spaces. You may face other obstacles based on religion, income, gender, ability, or experience other societal and institutional barriers to accessing nature. In our report, Belonging in Nature: Exploring Barriers, Impacts and Pathways to Nature for All across Canada, we explore barriers to belonging and make some recommendations for how to begin to address them from a more systemic point of view.
This time, we are giving you tools you need to start right where you are, right in your “backyard”—from saying hello to a local tree, to welcoming pollinators to your home, to sending your municipality a postcard. Consider this an activist's guide to meeting, loving, learning, and engaging with nature right in your backyard–whether that’s a home garden, balcony or porch, a community park or allotment, a kitchen where you prepare the season’s harvest, or any place in your neighbourhood that brings you that sense of connectivity with nature.
Now is the perfect time, and where you are is the perfect place from which to begin your journey to meet, get to know and love the land you live on.
Connected to each other
through our backyards
Our “backyards” are patches in a quilt we all have a hand in making: the more we care for our little corner, and the more we tend to the connective stitching holding it all together, the stronger we all become.
of Canadians agree that the more connected we feel to nature, the happier we are.
of BIPOC folks indicated that harassment or discrimination prevented them from accessing or enjoying park spaces, compared to only 8% of white respondents.
of habitat for pollinators could be created if just one-quarter of the 6.2+ million lawns across Canada were converted.