The federal government has released the second major report on the Importance of Nature to Canadians. Statistics Canada conducted the survey of 87,000 Canadians.The second report, which focuses on the economic significance of nature related activities shows that 20 million Canadians participated in one or more nature related activity in 1996. By taking part in nature-related activities such as camping or fishing, participants helped to support 215,000 jobs in Canada. Nature related activities contributed $12.1 billion towards Gross Domestic Product and generated $5.4 billion. This is a useful report to counter arguments that species protection is too costly, costs jobs etc. For further information on the report see Environment Canada