The Kinship Program: Wildlife, People, and Place supports Magnetawan First Nation’s long-standing, community-led turtle conservation work, combining Indigenous knowledge, scientific expertise, and community capacity to protect Ontario’s most at-risk freshwater turtle species.
Since 2018, Magnetawan First Nation has led a turtle egg incubation program grounded in cultural knowledge and community stewardship. In 2025, the Wilder Institute joined this effort as the first new priority program under the Wilder Canada Action Plan, providing resources, training, and technical support to expand Magnetawan First Nation’s conservation capacity.
The program operates in Magnetawan First Nation territory in the Georgian Bay region of Ontario, east of Georgian Bay and south of Sudbury. Magnetawan First Nation coordinates data collection and permit reporting for several neighbouring First Nations, creating a network of shared learning and action.
The Kinship Program aims to double the number of turtle eggs incubated annually – from 2,500 to 5,000 – while establishing a foundation for long-term, community-led recovery across Robinson Huron Treaty lands. A Community Conservation Hub on Magnetawan First Nation territory will be a base for turtle egg incubation, training, youth employment, and connection. The partnership is designed to grow alongside Magnetawan First Nation’s broader stewardship vision for the lands, waters, and wildlife of Eastern Georgian Bay.
Ontario’s wetlands have declined by more than 68% over the past decade, with 10,000 hectares lost to development and agriculture. All eight of Ontario’s native freshwater turtle species are at risk of extinction, threatened by habitat loss, road mortality, predation, and illegal collection. Their vulnerability is compounded by a slow life cycle – it takes up to 1,400 eggs, or roughly 60 years, for one turtle to replace itself in the wild.
The Wilder Institute’s role in the Kinship program is to build upon the work that Magnetawan First Nation has been leading for years. By amplifying existing community conservation efforts, providing technical training, and co-developing the Community Conservation Hub, we’re strengthening a model of Indigenous-informed conservation that has already proven effective, and helping it expand further.
Magnetawan First Nation’s turtle conservation is the epitome of an effective community-led recovery effort. The Kinship Program is designed to have impact at scale by doubling egg incubation capacity and establishing a replicable model for Indigenous-led conservation across Canada.
The Kinship Program is community conservation in its truest form. It’s designed by the people who have been stewards of this land for generations, and built to ensure those same people lead its future. Every element of this partnership is grounded in Magnetawan First Nation’s knowledge, values, and vision.
The Community Conservation Hub will create employment opportunities in Magnetawan First Nation, building the base conservation leaders with a deep connection to the lands and waters that the program protects.
The program expands upon a foundation of intergenerational knowledge transfer, ensuring that cultural practices and ecological knowledge are passed forward within the community for turtle protection and broader ecosystem conservation.
Magnetawan First Nation coordinates conservation data and permit reporting for several neighbouring First Nations – a model of shared stewardship that the Kinship Program is designed to expand.
With a goal of doubling the annual incubation capacity and expanding conservation capacity across Robinson Huron Treaty lands through the Guardian Network, the program is growing community-led conservation efforts for turtles and beyond.
The Kinship Program is built on a relationship of shared purpose between Magnetawn First Nation and the Wilder Institute. Collaboration with neighbouring First Nations, academic institutions, and partners across the region continue to expand the program’s reach.
Learn more about how we’re building One Wild Future.
Help protect Ontario’s turtles and other wetland ecosystems.
Your support funds egg incubation programs and community training to expand turtle conservation.
Advance Indigenous-led conservation and protect Ontario’s most at-risk freshwater species by partnering with us.
Get updates from the Kinship Program as this community-led conservation effort grows.
