Carolinian Canada
🌐Carolinian Canada is a cross-sector network working to regenerate the unique ecosystems of the Carolinian Zone in southern Ontario, from Toronto to Windsor. Grounded in the principles of reconciliation, the organization connects science, community, and business to support healthy landscapes, biodiversity, and climate-resilient communities.
Bioregional Context
The Carolinian Zone is the warmest and most biodiverse region of Canada, stretching across the southernmost parts of Ontario from Toronto to Windsor. This area represents less than 1% of Canada's landmass but is home to over 40% of its native plant species and a high concentration of rare and endangered wildlife. Its temperate climate, fertile soils, and proximity to the Great Lakes have made it a center for agriculture, urban development, and transportation—putting immense pressure on its ecosystems.
Background
The Carolinian Zone (Lake Erie Lowland) stretches Windsor–Toronto—Canada’s southernmost ecoregion, at the northern edge of the eastern deciduous forest. Between the Great Lakes, its mild climate supports exceptional diversity: ~2,200 herbaceous plants, ~400 bird species, and some of the country’s most productive farmland.
It is the traditional territory of Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Lunaapeew, Wendat, and Attawandaron nations, many of whom remain present with long-standing treaty relationships.
Pressures are acute: the zone covers only about 0.25% of Canada’s land but roughly 25% of its population. About 85% of the ecoregion is now cropland, pasture, or urban; forest cover has fallen from ~80% to ~11% and wetlands from ~28% to ~5%. The zone holds more than half of Canada’s federally listed species at risk—Ontario’s most imperiled region—while still supporting millions of people and high-yield agriculture. Action must fit that multi-use, multi-claim landscape.
Origins and Network
Formed in 1984 by scientists and local groups alarmed by habitat loss, Carolinian Canada advances collaborative conservation across the zone. The 2000 “Big Picture” partnership with Ontario’s Natural Heritage Information Centre shifted planning from scattered “islands of green” toward a connected natural heritage system—still central to the Healthy Landscape Strategy and used by governments, conservation authorities, landowners, and communities.
The coalition names its settler-conservation roots and, since a 2018 board directive, is Indigenizing the network—Two-Eyed Seeing, ethical space, and expanded Indigenous leadership in land and water stewardship.
Philosophy & Approach
Carolinian Canada integrates Indigenous and Western knowledge systems in what they call a "Two-Eyed Seeing" approach. Rather than simply consulting Indigenous communities (as many conservation projects do), their projects are co-developed from the ground up in "ethical space" where Indigenous and Western worldviews are given equal weight. This is transformative because:
- It acknowledges Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and contributions to land stewardship
- It operates in "ethical space" where neither knowledge system dominates
- It incorporates traditional ecological knowledge into both implementation and evaluation
- It goes beyond consultation to active engagement, acknowledging Indigenous rights and land sovereignty, Indigenous contributions to land stewardship and conservation, and the cultural and relational significance of the land
Activities
Healthy Landscape Strategy
Carolinian Canada's Healthy Landscape Strategy aims to grow Canada's Biggest Wildlife Garden connecting Toronto to Windsor with healthy habitat. The strategy is informed by ecologist Doug Tallamy's research demonstrating the ways in which native plants support greater insect populations, biodiversity, and landscape health than non-native plants. The Healthy Landscape Strategy includes four key activities, linking restoration and conservation priorities based on the latest local and global science: 1. Save local nature: Increase commitment to saving habitat with long-term agreements. 2. Steward healthy landscapes: Use best ecosystem practices to increase habitat quality. 3. Seed, grow, create, or restore high-quality habitat: Use native plants sourced locally, ecologically, and ethically to increase habitat quantity and connections. 4. Lead healthy resilient communities: Connect communities to nature through strong equitable collaboration, positive engagement, First Nations leadership, and an ethical, local native plant industry. Support a climate-smart, green economy for thriving local communities through cross-sector collaboration. Native plants hold cultural and relational significance to many Indigenous peoples who view native plants as relatives and friends, not commodities. As the demand for native plants increases, part of Carolinian Canada's strategy is to ensure an ethical seed strategy for native plants within the region.
Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond
The Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond (DZCIB) links investor repayment to five holistic outcome streams—habitat, knowledge/circling, economy, relational connection, and ecocentric wellbeing—rather than treating ecology as the only ledger. Partners launched design work in 2019 in ethical space hosted by Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. The five-year pilot began March 2020, spanning 60 ha in the zone, to accelerate healthy landscapes, nature-based solutions, reconciliation, and human–nature relationship. - Capital: CAD $130,000 from VERGE Capital (Pillar Non-profit Network), structured as a repayable prototype via the VERGE Breakthrough Fund (5% interest, three-year term). - Habitat delivery: Indigenous TEK and Western science together; 53 projects with nine partners (First Nations, trusts, municipalities, ALUS, etc.), typically with 1:1 in-kind match. - Outcome payers: Third-party evaluation gates repayment. Payers include 3M Canada, multi-year public anchor funding, and Pollinator Partnership—grants legally conditioned on outcomes. - Leadership: Carolinian Canada, VERGE, Thames Talbot Land Trust, Deshkan Ziibiing, Ivey Business School—explicitly Two-Eyed Seeing in design and review. Five pillars (each with a pay-for-success benchmark): habitat gains; people learning on the land; intercultural economic opportunity; nature connectedness; ecocentric sightings—broadening “success” beyond hectares. Through July 2021, the pilot reported 69 ha improved, 39,000+ native plants, and ~450 people in land-based learning—spanning volunteer planting (e.g. Briscoe Woods), invasive control and corporate seed collection (Hawk Cliff), bilingual trail and language work (Anishinaabensag Miikaanens), and multi-site work with conservation authorities and First Nations. As Robin Wall Kimmerer notes in the report, restoring land without restoring relationship is empty; relationship is what endures.
In the Zone Habitat Tracker
Since most of the land in the region is privately owned, landowners in the Carolinian Zone play an instrumental role in habitat sustainability. Habitat partners, landowners, volunteers, and community members are welcome to participate in the Conservation Impact Bond by logging their habitat projects using the In the Zone Habitat Tracker. This multi-partner platform, facilitated by Carolinian Canada and WWF-Canada, connects and assists diverse landowners and communities to grow, steward, and measure healthy landscapes using "Big Picture" measures of landscape health and resilience, as well as localized impact metrics.
Vision and Legacy
Carolinian Canada’s long-term aim is community-led, climate-resilient, healthy landscapes across southern Ontario—in reconciliation, not only in technical conservation. The DZCIB is one prototype for blended, outcome-based finance, but the network’s wider role is to convene Indigenous, civic, land, and finance partners; make biodiversity easier to fund; and embed Two-Eyed Seeing in practice. Scaling will adapt metrics to place while keeping holistic intent. Where finance appears, it is framed as repairing relationships—between peoples and with land—not only transacting for acres.