NatureServe Canada, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada and Birds Canada have partnered to lead on a project to identify Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in Canada. The KBA Canada project involves the contributions of dozens of government agencies, Conservation Data Centres (CDCs), First Nations, non-profit organizations and independent biodiversity experts (kbacanada.org).
The KBA Canada project is playing a key role in identifying priority lands for conservation under Canada's commitment to protect 30% of our land and water by 2030.
NatureServe Canada’s role in the project is focused on the gathering, management and distribution of species occurrence data (except for birds, which is led by Birds Canada), and the production of EBAR range maps to inform KBA identification.
Since the inception of the KBA Canada project in 2019, NatureServe Canada has collected over 40 million species occurrence records from the NatureServe Canada Network of CDCs, and from 240+ "non-CDC" data providers" (e.g., GBIF, iNaturalist, BISON, independent biologists). The non-CDC data (Observations) along with the CDC data (Element Occurrence and Observation data) are made available by NatureServe Canada to KBA Canada experts to inform KBA analyses.
This data is also made available to the public at no cost via the NatureServe Explorer Pro Open Data platform, at precisions permitted by the various data providers. Accordingly, the species occurrence data that informed the delineation of KBA sites in Canada are available to the public via the Canada Key Biodiversity Areas Sites layer in NatureServe Explorer Pro, and (for bird data) the Birds Canada NatureCounts platform, promoting awareness, transparency and further analyses.
CDC Data: To learn more about accessing NatureServe Canada Network CDC data visit our Biodiversity Data webpage.
Non-CDC Data: Additional information about the non-CDC data managed by NatureServe Canada is provided here.
The non-CDC species occurrence records in the public layer of the NatureServe Explorer Pro platform (Canada Key Biodiversity Areas Sites layer) are buffered to a one square mile hexagon and we encourage data users to contact the owner/provider of the original data record to access the highest precision and most current data. Attribution information pointing to the original data source is provided in the Explorer Pro record to facilitate this connection. For species that are susceptible to harm (e.g., poaching), we have buffered to a much more coarse precision (typically 343 square mile hexagon) according to the precision permissions of the relevant provincial/territorial CDC.
NatureServe Canada can provide access to precise CDC and non-CDC data in Explorer Pro (based on demonstrated "need to know" and the completion of data security requirements and data licensing agreements). Service fees apply.
NatureServe Canada is working to secure funding for fiscal 2026-27 (and beyond) to allow us to continue our work to collect, manage and responsibly share this growing non-CDC dataset. Please contact us (info@naturserve.ca) should you be aware of funding opportunities or to learn about accessing the dataset (precise, or buffered) in NatureServe Explorer Pro.
