About CPAWS
At the Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS Yukon), we believe that public awareness, engagement, grassroots community organizing, education, and empowerment are key to achieving land and water protection.
Our team works with First Nations, Governments, organizations, businesses, and citizens to translate values and ideas into meaningful actions and policy changes. We break down complicated (and often colonial) processes, and create tools and space for citizens to speak up and share their own perspectives.
Mission
CPAWS Yukon aims to conserve the Yukon’s ecologically and culturally important lands and waters for all. The world is rapidly losing its wild spaces, and conservation must be a pillar in the Yukon so that our rich wildlife and diverse landscapes receive the protection they deserve.
Our Work
Our core team is based in Whitehorse on the traditional territories of Ta’an Kwäch’än Council and Kwanlin Dün First Nation in Whitehorse. When we work on a specific area or region, we look to the goals of the First Nations whose land it includes, and we use that to inform our own goals. Relationships based on respect and our Commitment to Reconciliation are foundational to our work as a non-profit environmental organization.
CPAWS Yukon is currently set up to have four major teams: Outreach Team, Conservation Team, Communications Team, and Operations Team. We all work collaboratively to ensure that our campaigns and projects incorporate diverse perspectives, run smoothly, and align with our mission.
Our History
CPAWS is a national charity founded in 1963, which now includes thirteen chapters and 40,000 supporters across the country. A dedicated organization in the environmental movement, CPAWS has been deeply involved in establishing two-thirds of Canada’s protected areas.
The Yukon Chapter was founded in 1992 by passionate Yukoners who wanted to bring greater attention to conservation issues in the territory. CPAWS Yukon has the ability to inform and mobilize many supporters, collaborating with First Nations, the public, and other governments to develop solutions that will protect the environment.
As a settler-founded organization, we have been taking steps to ensure that we represent the views of all those who want the Yukon to be an example of how people can live in balance with the natural world on which we depend. We aim to work “in a good way” that recognizes the agency that First Nations and Indigenous People have in being key decision-makers and stewards of the land and water.
Our ways of operating have been, and are currently, influenced by the norms and customs that have been forcibly imposed since the European colonization of Canada. CPAWS Yukon acknowledges our responsibility to support First Nations and the Inuvialuit in safeguarding the land, water, and air for future generations. We commit to specific actions in our path towards Reconciliation, though we acknowledge that we will not be the ones to determine if they were effective.
To learn more about our Commitment to Reconciliation, and to see all of our action items, visit cpawsyukon.org/reconciliation.