Keeping nature intact is the best defense against a changing climate

Connecting and protecting landscapes from Yellowstone to Yukon is a powerful climate strategy

The best climate solution already exists: intact nature.

Connecting and protecting habitats is one of the most effective ways to combat climate change while supporting biodiversity and the health of our communities. Here are some reasons why:

1. Intact nature stores carbon and regulates water.

Maintaining and protecting large intact landscapes is the best strategy to mitigate climate change.

Avoiding the destruction of forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other carbon- and species-rich ecosystems helps prevent emissions while keeping nature’s carbon vaults locked.

Healthy mountain landscapes also act like sponges, storing and slowly releasing water to sustain rivers and communities through dry seasons.

New research shows the Yellowstone to Yukon region is like a vacuum cleaner, sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In fact, it absorbs 15 per cent of all CO2 annually across the U.S. and Canada. That’s equivalent to the emissions of approximately 20 million cars every single year!

The region also stores 13 per cent of all the carbon locked up in plants and forests across both countries. Yet, this region makes up only 7 per cent of the total landmass — so it’s working overtime doing its part for climate change.

2. Connected movement corridors help species adapt.

The Yellowstone to Yukon region provides vital pathways for wildlife to move north or to cooler elevations as the climate shifts.

Connected landscapes are a lifeline for ecosystems, helping animals to find food, water, and mates. They help populations exchange genes between islands of habitat that are carved up by our road network and other human development.

Wildlife crossings, voluntary private land conservation, and solid policies and funding help strengthen nature’s connections, enhancing resilience to extreme climate events and allowing species to adapt to shifting conditions.

3. Giving wildlife room to roam supports healthy ecosystems.

Animals need wide open spaces to roam, feed, and reproduce. This landscape still supports much of its native biodiversity — our goal is to keep it this way.

When wildlife has space, encounters with people decrease. Non-lethal solutions, like bear-proof garbage bins, electric fences, and more, help humans and wildlife coexist — helping sustain healthy and connected ecosystems.

One of the most important steps to addressing climate change? Preserve nature first.

Restoration is valuable and needed to bring degraded landscapes back to health, but intact nature does the heavy lifting for climate and biodiversity.

Keeping landscapes connected and protected, and ecosystems healthy, is the strongest safeguard for our shared future.

In fact, research from 2026 shows it is most effective to protect wild places that are still healthy now and restore those that are damaged. Keeping forests, wetlands, marine areas and grasslands healthy is one of the fastest ways to store carbon and support wildlife. This is the nature positive approach.

That’s why we must scale up protection against a backdrop of worldwide biodiversity loss, land-use pressures, and the stark reality of rapid climate change — the effects of which are already having a profound impact on mountainous regions globally and the plants and animals within them.

As the only organization dedicated to securing the long-term ecological health of this entire region, we at Y2Y know that keeping these landscapes intact is the best way to tackle the loss of biodiversity and a changing climate.

And your support is helping us achieve our bold mission. Thank you!