Syngenta and Fondation de la faune extend biodiversity partnership

Syngenta Canada Inc. has renewed its partnership with Fondation de la faune du Québec through 2017, in support of projects enhancing biodiversity in agricultural settings. 

 

Fondation de la faune works to protect and enhance the quality of wildlife habitats so that they become or stay optimal for a wide variety of organisms, including pollinators and other animal species. Their flagship program with farmers, called Mise en valeur de la biodiversité en milieu agricole, which translates to the ‘Agricultural Biodiversity Enhancement Program’, has been running for more than a decade. 

 

Syngenta is an early funding partner of the program working in partnership with other Fondation de la faune supporters. 

 

“Syngenta is proud to support Fondation de la faune and its ongoing work with farmers around land stewardship,” says David Stanley, head of the Eastern Commercial Unit with Syngenta Canada. “The program encourages, supports and works with landowners on practices that protect wildlife habitats in agricultural areas.” 

 

Since beginning the program, Fondation de la faune and its partners have planted thousands of trees and shrubs, developed wetlands, improved fish habitats, and established pollinator-friendly landscapes. 

 

“Over the last five years, Syngenta’s support, combined with other partners’ efforts, enabled 77 different wildlife projects under the Mise en valeur de la biodiversité en milieu agricole program. The positive outcome obtained through this work clearly highlights the relevance of our joint efforts to improve land, ecosystem and natural resources management to ensure the future of the environment and the sustainability of the agricultural sector here in Quebec,” says André Martin, president and general manager of Fondation de la faune. 

 

The work of Fondation de la faune and its partners is an important part of Syngenta Canada’s contribution to The Good Growth Plan. Enhancing biodiversity on farmland is one of the six commitments Syngenta is working towards to address major global food security and sustainability challenges by 2020. The six commitments are: 

 

•  Making crops more efficient: by increasing average productivity of the world’s major crops by 20 percent without using more land, water or inputs

•  Rescuing more farmland: improving the fertility of 10 million hectares of farmland on the brink of degradation

•  Helping biodiversity flourish: enhancing biodiversity on 5 million hectares of farmland

•  Empowering smallholders: reaching 20 million smallholders and enabling them to increase productivity by 50 percent

•  Helping people stay safe: training 20 million farm workers on labour safety, especially in developing countries

•  Looking after every worker: striving for fair labour conditions throughout our entire supply chain network

 

“Our partnership with Fondation de la faune dates back 10 years now and the work it supports is an important contribution to the realization of our larger goals of improving resource efficiency, strengthening ecosystems and supporting rural communities,” notes Syngenta Government Affairs Manager Laurie Goodwin.