Paul Smith - Arctic Conservation

Advancing Science for Biodiversity Conservation

We develop innovative solutions to Canada’s pressing conservation challenges. By combining long-term Arctic field studies, cutting-edge technologies, and data-driven strategies, we work with diverse partners—including Indigenous communities—to understand environmental change and improve the success of wildlife conservation.

Understanding Arctic Change and Its Impact on Wildlife

a dunlin at east bay in june
We study how rapid climate change and other environmental pressures affect Arctic ecosystems and migratory birds. Long-term research in Nunavut reveals how shifting conditions influence shorebird survival and reproduction, and how overabundant geese reshape tundra habitats

Innovating Wildlife Monitoring Techniques

A red knot released with a motus tag

Our team develops cutting-edge tools to track and study wildlife. In the early years of MOTUS, we helped to expand the network and refine the applications, transforming VHF telemetry into a continent-wide system for tracking bird migration. We continue to lead efforts to integrate tracking data with monitoring and demographic data, to develop new insights into population status. We also lead or support analyses of some of the country's largest datasets describing the population status of birds.

Improving Conservation Outcomes Through Analytics

East Bay under the midnight sun

We design smarter strategies for biodiversity conservation. From prioritizing recovery actions for multiple species to reanalyzing decades of data that revealed the loss of 3 billion birds, our work ensures conservation efforts are efficient, evidence-based, and impactful.

Supporting Inuit Self Determination

Participants of the Inuit field training program
The Inuit Field Training Program equips Inuit youth with hands-on skills in environmental monitoring, safe fieldwork practices, and traditional knowledge shared by local elders. Launched in 2018 through a partnership with the Coral Harbour community and ECCC scientists, the program creates pathways to education and employment while strengthening community-led conservation.

Incentivizing new partnerships for conservation

The Conservation Exchange is a pilot program by Environment and Climate Change Canada that incentivizes private-sector investment in biodiversity by issuing government-certified credits for conservation outcomes. Our team is developing a transparent, credible, and repeatable indicator to measure biodiversity benefits, enabling projects of all scales to be evaluated and compared across Canada.