Our Identity
The Canadian Parks, Protected, and Conserved Areas Leadership Collective (CPPCL) chose three images to reflect our story and purpose.
The Leadership Feather
Collective Empathy Icon
The Inclusion Circle
Leadership
Feather
This feather is used as a symbol of CPCIL to represent the four elements of effective and equitable leadership that we try to incorporate in all our programs, services, and interactions.
CONSERVE: conservation of culture and biological diversity is the quill
The goal of effective and equitable parks and protected areas is to conserve life on earth in all its forms.
Everything in parks and protected areas depends on effective conservation. We must protect and restore natural and cultural diversity in order to provide equitable and sustainable opportunities for people to connect with the natural world.
CONNECT: connecting people as nature is the shaft
All protected areas connect people as nature by maintaining ecosystem services and connected habitat. Parks actively connect people as nature by fostering a love of life through stories and experiences in nature.
MANAGE: “doing things right “is the down
Effective management insulates parks and protected areas from external and internal threats and balances short-term pressures with long term success.
LEAD: “doing the right thing” is the vane
Leadership provides lift and propels parks and protected areas forward. And just as feathers have different shapes depending on their purpose, leadership looks different in different contexts.
Just as a single feather is just part of a bird, we see our work as part of a larger, interconnected system.
COLLABORATE: The combination of feathers on a bird, overlaid and interlocked, combine to support survival and success. Many approaches to conserve, connect, manage, and lead serve to create a cooperative system of parks and protected areas
RECONCILIATION: Each feather on a bird has a different role and each bird has a different niche. We see room for many feathers, each one representing a different knowledge system.
These themes provide structure for the topics in the CPCIL knowledge framework.
Sharing
the Feather
Our icon is a feather in the letter “C” (for Collective), tilted away to indicate that leadership begins with an offer to share the feather to others with empathy and humility.
Before we can address complex issues we must listen to understand who is involved and what matters to them. Only after listening can we move to dialogue to determine what matters most to everyone involved, and what ways we might move forward together. Finally, we want to take action that is creative, constructive, and generates new possibilities that benefit everyone.
The entire parks and protected areas system depends on uplifting and respecting the value of different perspectives and serving the needs of others–both human and non-human.
