In the Spotlight
Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), 23 July 2026—The International Monarch Monitoring Blitz is just around the corner! From 31 July to 9 August 2026, we invite everyone across North America to head outside and search for monarch butterflies and milkweed plants.
Supporting emissions reduction and helping communities adapt to extreme weather events
The pursuit of environmental justice (EJ) aims to address historical inequities, marginalization and discrimination in how environmental benefits and burdens are enjoyed or suffered by certain communities.
Working with communities to conserve and restore North America's terrestrial and marine ecosystems and priority species
Supporting enforcement and compliance with domestic environmental law and with multilateral environmental agreements
Advancing the sustainability of our economic activities and life choices by identifying and fostering alternatives that effectively integrate the environmental, social and economic dimensions for a just and resilient North America. Our work is organized around four main areas:
Promoting clean air, water and land through prevention, reductions, and sound management of pollutant releases, toxic chemicals and hazardous waste
Over the years, the CEC has been committed to youth engagement and the efforts supported have provided youth with opportunities to raise awareness, provide tangible, sustainable, and innovative solutions for environmental issues in their communities, and influence CEC’s strategies, projects, and initiatives.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) recognizes the essential role that Indigenous Peoples and local communities play in environmental stewardship across Turtle Island, Madre Tierra, also known as North America.
The private sector plays a critical role in driving economic prosperity, innovation and sustainable development.
Featured Project
Illegal logging, and the trade in illegally logged timber, is a domestic, regional, and global issue. It has negative economic, environmental, and social impacts, including—but not limited to—forest degradation, loss of traditional homelands for Indigenous and tribal communities, and the creation of unfair market conditions that disadvantage legal and sustainable...
Featured Publication
A trinational collaboration of more than 21 million square kilometers
Initiatives generating land cover information from geospatial data exist at various levels, from national to global. However, depending on user needs, one initiative might be more useful than another. What about regional or continental initiatives? They are less frequent because they often require direct cooperation between different national initiatives, and this involves long-term coordination and commitments among governmental agencies from different countries. This is why the North American Land Change Monitoring System (NALCMS) is a unique initiative whose story of collaboration is showcased in this publication to inform others around the world who might also need mid-level land cover initiatives to bridge the gap between national and global ones.
This document serves as a reference companion to the CEC’s NALCMS digital map products. It provides background information on the NALCMS initiative (history, collaborative process, land cover products creation and validation process, etc.) in an accessible way for generalist researchers, and NALCMS map products data users. It also highlights the nearly 20-year partnership between the CEC and experts from our countries’ environmental mapping and statistics agencies.
We conduct research, provide tools and training, and provide a unique space for decision-makers and the public to engage on environmental policy issues affecting the North American region.
