My story is not uncommon. Chances are, most people reading this can relate with the strange sense of curiosity I had growing up. As a kid, I often wondered what my home looked like before I lived there. I thought, “What might have existed where I slept, before there was a house there?” This was especially true since I had been told I lived in a rainforest, but I only saw rain - no forest. It turns out, the last trees of what was once an expansive old-growth rainforest crashed to the Earth more than 60 years before I was born. No, I didn’t grow up in that forest - I grew up in a suburban sprawl: massive stretches of land covered by separated houses, big lawns, and most of all, concrete. Hardly an inspiring picture of nature.

But just steps from where my house would be built, shortly after the forest was completely destroyed, the first efforts were taken to restore it. This reforested park was my small, reliable sanctuary from suburban life. I spent hundreds of hours of my childhood running and biking through its trails. At the time, I didn’t know about the history of the park. I just wanted to run around and have a good sweat in nature. But with every visit, I was reaping the benefits of decades-old efforts to protect and restore biodiversity.

In recent years I’ve wanted to return to my earliest loves of exercise and nature, while also doing something positive that I really believed in. “Adventure with purpose” became my mission.

I took some time to think about how I could find that adventure with purpose, and soon I came across Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). In the simplest terms, KBAs are regions of land and water that are ecologically important because they support a broad variety of species. As soon as I heard about KBAs, I knew this could be the passion project I had been searching for.

The KBA Canada coalition is a partnership of organizations and individuals that together identifies and assesses Candidate KBAs and organizes and stores robust scientific information about them.

New Candidate KBAs are assessed all the time, and as of April 2024 there are 142 recognized KBAs in Canada. My goal is to bike to as many as I can, raising awareness and funds to support their conservation.

My fundraising goal is $250 for each of the 142 KBAs, or $35,500 total. These funds will be split between the three KBA Canada secretariat organizations: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada, Birds Canada, and NatureServe Canada.

Follow along:

www.biodiversitybikeride.com

Instagram: @biodiversitybikeride

X: @biobikeride

Disclaimer: Funds collected in this fundraiser are processed in partnership with WCS Canada, but will be split equally between the three KBA secretariat organizations.