A group of fifteen insurance companies in the P&C space have banded together with environmental non-profit Ducks Unlimited Canada to launch The Nature Force – a climate resilience initiative aimed at focusing insurers’ investments into natural infrastructure solutions to mitigate flood risk.
According to a joint statement by members of The Nature Force, nature-based solutions such as the development of wetland systems can lead to positive outcomes including increased climate resilience, biodiversity and water quality.
“Healthy and interconnected wetland systems are phenomenally good at absorbing significant water flows and reducing flooding, while providing critical habitat to hundreds of species of wildlife, sequestering carbon, and filtering contaminants from our watersheds,” explained Ducks Unlimited Canada national director Gloutney.
The fifteen insurance companies taking part in The Nature Force are: Aviva Canada, CNA Canada, Definity, Gallagher, Gore Mutual, HUB International, Intact, Navacord, Northbridge, SGI, Travelers Canada, Trisura, Wawanesa, Westland, Zurich Canada.
“What sets the Nature Force initiative apart is that we’re coming together as the leaders of the Canadian insurance industry and funding community-based natural infrastructure projects in urban adjacent areas and upstream watersheds in the Fraser Delta area of British Columbia and the highly settled regions of Ontario and Quebec,” said HUB International Canada president Tina Osen.
“We are so pleased to be able to participate in this initiative with such an impressive collective of forward-thinking insurance organizations,” added Ducks Unlimited Canada CEO Larry Kaumeyer.
Kaumeyer said he is confident that The Nature Force will be able to influence landscape-level change “while showcasing the value of wetland conservation as a critical part of the solution for climate change adaptation.”
A joint release from the group said that The Nature Force’s project planning process begins this coming April, in collaboration with public and private sector partners as well as local stakeholders. The group will leverage indices and modelling tools developed by academic partners and Ducks Unlimited Canada’s own research institute to determine which projects it will prioritize - based on factors such as flood risk and impacted population size.
