Applied Learning Course
Invasive Species & Climate Risks
Invasive species are a growing challenge for communities across Canada, with impacts to ecosystems, infrastructure, economies, and cultural practices. At the same time, climate change is altering environmental conditions; creating new pathways for spread, increasing disturbance, and shifting how and where invasive species establish.
This course is designed to help communities navigate this complexity.
Effective invasive species management requires us to bring Indigenous and Western approaches to land management into dialogue. Rather than approaching invasive species as an isolated ecological issue requiring technical expertise, participants will explore how invasive species management intersects with climate change, land governance, and community priorities.
Through a combination of learning modules, assessments and reflective exercises, participants build practical skills to assess risks, identify priorities, and strengthen invasive species management approaches in their own local context.
By the end of this course, participants are better equipped to:
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Understand how climate change influences invasive species risks
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Identify priority species, pathways, and vulnerable assets in their own community
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Evaluate current management approaches and capacity
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Integrate climate and equity considerations into decision-making
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Strengthen partnerships and governance approaches
MODULE 1: INTRODUCING INVASIVE SPECIES THROUGH A TWO-EYED SEEING APPROACH
This module sets the stage by introducing invasive species through both Western and Indigenous perspectives. It situates invasive species within broader systems of land management, history, and ways of knowing, encouraging participants to reflect on how knowledge systems shape environmental decision-making. Participants learn core concepts of invasion biology while examining how these concepts are framed and understood differently across knowledge systems.
MODULE 2: CLIMATE RISKS AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS
This module introduces climate and invasive species risks through a natural asset management lens; recognizing that climate adaptation planning that does not account for invasive species risks may underestimate future vulnerabilities. Participants explore how climate change and invasive species interact to create compounding risks to managed systems, while highlighting effective management tools and approaches.
Module 2 features decision-making exercises that support communities at any planning level (with or without an IAS management strategy) in identifying management gaps and prioritizing actions that support invasive species management and climate resilience in their community.
MODULE 3: INVASIVE SPECIES PARTNERSHIPS
This module focuses on the governance, relationships, and institutional conditions that shape invasive species management with a focus on key relational frameworks that support partnerships between Indigenous and settler communities. Participants explore how invasive species intersect with these frameworks and reflect on how invasive species management decisions are made, whose priorities are reflected, and how management approaches can align across communities.
Module 3 introduces Invasives Canada’s Principles and Practices Framework for advancing respectful invasive species partnerships with Indigenous Peoples and concludes with a reflective exercise designed to support internal discussions within participant communities.
For Indigenous Nations: A Nation-led governance reflection, that focuses on how invasive species management aligns with community priorities, values and governance systems, and for Municipalities: A readiness assessment to determine if internal systems are prepared for meaningful and respectful collaboration with Indigenous Nations.
Register Today!
The Applied Learning Course on Invasive Species and Climate Risks launched at the end of March 2026 with support from the Federation of Canadian Municipalies’ Green Municipal Fund. To register your interest in future iterations of this training, complete the form below.
About the Green Municipal Fund
GMF exists to enhance the quality of life for people in Canada by accelerating a transformation to sustainable and resilient communities. It does this by providing grants, loans, innovative financing, leveraged investments, capacity building, and strategic support.
