Hadley Archer
Executive Director
Canada
Hadley Archer Executive Director of Nature United © Nature United
AREA OF EXPERTISE
business, fundraising, leadership, finance
Biography
Hadley Archer is the Executive Director of Nature United. Growing up in Winnipeg, he spent his summers with his family touring the country from coast to coast, experiencing Canada’s majestic parks. This sparked his love and respect for nature, and instilled in him a life-long passion for advancing solutions that work for people and nature.
Hadley joined Nature United in 2014 as their first Canadian Executive Director. He leads an incredible team who share a vision to reimagine conservation in Canada, where people and nature are united, and ecosystems, communities and economies are thriving.
He brings with him years of experience in conservation, fundraising and business. Prior to Nature United, Hadley was with WWF, working for their global forest program and in Canada as the VP in charge of Strategic Partnerships and Fundraising. He also worked for the Forest Stewardship Council in Canada and Europe, building demand for responsible forest products. Prior to that, he worked with Procter & Gamble Canada as a Brand Manager and Group Finance Manager in the Paper Products Division.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master's in Forest Conservation, Hadley brings a unique set of skills and experiences that integrate economic development and conservation to drive innovative solutions.
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Corporate Leaders Need to Act on Natural Climate Solutions
Nov 04, 2021
It’s a global and moral imperative for companies to transform from the inside out to prevent the devastating impacts of climate change. Read More
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Hope for a Green Future
Feb 05, 2021
With Natural Climate Solutions at the forefront, we have an historic opportunity to invest in a greener, more equitable future and address the global climate crisis. Read More
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Fresh Air, Clear Minds
The Collection | Jun 01, 2021
How nature protects and comforts during troubled times, and how we can return the favor. Read the Article on Page 58
Resilient Economies, Climate and Communities
From the 2020 Impact Report
This feels like a new world. Over the last year, change has swept across every aspect of our lives, from our daily routines, to how we interact with one another, to the way we do business. Both as a global community and on a very personal level, we have felt tragedy, hardship and uncertainty.
But it is also the same world—a world where nature nourishes us, fuels our communities, underpins our economies, and teaches our most valuable lessons.
At Nature United, we have prioritized safety and wellbeing, and we have adjusted to new virtual realities. We know our partners have been challenged during this time, and we have listened and done everything we can to provide flexibility and additional support.
Our work has always integrated community support, economic development and local leadership, and this year has shown our approach to be more critical than ever in building resilience. Together with our partners, we have seen extraordinary progress over the last 12 months, achieving milestones through our partnerships in the Great Bear Rainforest, bolstering the resilience of Indigenous Guardians across Canada, and securing investments for fisheries management led by First Nations.
Protecting, managing and restoring lands provides an unshakeable foundation for new science led by Nature United to reveal the potential of natural climate solutions in Canada. We are working with 38 scientists from academia, government and other organizations, to prove that by 2030 there are feasible, practical and economically viable actions for Canada to achieve major climate benefits, as well protect biodiversity and advance local economic resilience. Indigenous leadership and knowledge is critical to this effort, as is engaging leaders across sectors and communities—this is the exciting and urgent work ahead of us.
Our supporters have been vital to these achievements, preserving our ability as an organization to be responsive and ambitious amid unprecedented challenges. On behalf of our team, thank you for believing that Nature United’s approach is imperative for our current times, and for sharing our values and making transformative investments.
Together, we are building resilience across this diverse and vibrant country, and we are steadily advancing towards a sustainable, prosperous future.
Celebrating the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement
2015
Of all the days I’ve spent in Great Bear Rainforest over my lifetime—spotting spirit bears with Doug Neasloss (pictured below) of the Kitasoo/Xai’Xais Nation, my first encounter of humpback whales bubble-net-feeding, and sitting by a campfire with my team listening to traditional Heiltsuk stories—one of my strongest memories of this region is a day not spent in the Great Bear at all. It’s the day when the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement was finalized in a museum hall in Vancouver.
The agreement conserves 6.4 million hectares of the largest remaining coastal temperate rainforest on Earth, banning logging on much of the land and setting stringent ecological protections on the balance. New protected areas have been created, and a path for sustainable forestry has been set. At every scale—regional, national, global—the agreement is a landmark in conservation history.
But how did we get here? How did we re-imagine the “War of the Woods”—in a province where industry, environmental groups and First Nations clashed on a battleground that remains today the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history—as the first step in bringing agreement across deeply entrenched and conflicting interests?
It took the leadership of environmental groups to set aside blockades and look for a new way of working that would bring all interests to the table, and keep them there.
It took the leadership of forestry companies to build new alliances where there had historically been conflict and division.
And it took the leadership of First Nations—the original and enduring stewards of these lands and waters—to raise their collective voice to protect what makes the Great Bear precious but also to call with equal volume for economic opportunities.
The Great Bear Agreement may not be a perfect model for conserving forests and balancing economic interests globally. But gradually, over the last decade of hard, dedicated work, it has evolved into a perfect model of leadership: a model that imagined a bold, almost unimaginable vision of what could be, that brought together disparate views and interests, and that empowered others to make that vision a reality.
It is a model that we will need as we face the great challenge of our time—to preserve natural systems while meeting the needs of people. At Nature United, it is a model we will build on, working in-step with Indigenous stewards, industry partners and governments that see critical opportunities today to lead in shaping a bright, sustainable future for Canada’s lands and waters.