$2.86M in grants approved for 14 Manitoba-based conservation groups to fight climate change | CBC News

The focus of the funding is to help renaturalize Manitoba landscapes, Sopuck said, and to support groups that can deliver projects that will provide multiple benefits.

“We’re thinking about projects that help to reduce flooding, that help to respond to the impacts of drought, that improve habitat for wildlife and biological diversity, and very importantly as well, projects that will help sequester carbon over time.”

The Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation is a non-profit, governed by a board of directors appointed by the province, that works with landowners to maintain fish and wildlife habitats. It distributes money generated by a $200-million provincial trust fund to conservation projects through its programs.

Manitoba Beef Producers, one of the latest grant recipients, will receive $400,000 for a program to support projects that help cattle producers conserve grasslands and enhance habitat for threatened and endangered birds.

“This funding announcement is really exciting to see,” Carson Callum, the industry association’s general manager, told CBC in an interview.

“Beef producers here in the province are really critical to the preservation of important grassland habitats that are host to such a biodiverse amount of animals, so it’s really important to support those producers to continue to conserve those lands in beef production.”

Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Manitoba Branch is set to receive $750,000 in grants, said Mark Francis, the organization’s manager of provincial operations, in an interview.

Some of the funding will be used to restore wetland through incentive-based, long-term partnerships with landowners, MHHC says.

Francis said the funding is needed.

“Wetlands and grasslands in Manitoba continue to be threatened … and this funding provides an opportunity for us to restore growth and wetland habitat.”

Ducks Unlimited will inject another $1.5 million into the programming, Francis said.

“We appreciate the importance the government placed on the value of natural wetlands, grasslands and ecological goods and services that they could provide to Manitobans,” he said.

“We’re honoured that we’ve been selected as a recipient.”