This text is taken from our newsletter “Le Courrier de la Planète” of June 28, 2022. To subscribe, click here.
Oil and gas exploration is not strictly prohibited in the new “marine refuge” set up earlier in June by the Trudeau government off the coast of Nova Scotia, learned The duty. This type of protection measure must, however, enable Canada to preserve ecosystems that are vulnerable to human activities, but also to respect its ocean protection objectives.
On June 8, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) announced the creation of the “Eastern Canyons Marine Refuge”, an area of more than 44,000 km2 located in southern Nova Scotia. According to the federal government, this project was designed “to help safeguard the unique marine environment of the region”. It is also part of “the government’s commitment to conserve 25% of Canada’s oceans by 2025, and 30% by 2030”.
DFO says it has targeted the area to be protected “based on scientific evidence” which shows that the area has “dense concentrations of cold-water corals” forming “important habitats that support a diversity of marine life”. They are also “vulnerable to disturbance from various marine activities, including bottom fishing, carried out using trawls, pots, and longlines”. In this context, “all commercial and community bottom fishing will now be prohibited in the marine refuge”, specifies the federal ministry.
Boreholes
However, oil and gas exploration is not strictly prohibited in the new marine refuge, even though there is currently no such project in the area or an exploration permit. “The standard of protection for other effective area-based conservation measures, including marine refuges, requires that all human activities be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Certain activities may be permitted if the risks they pose to the area are effectively avoided or mitigated, and if other effective area-based conservation measures continue to deliver biodiversity conservation outcomes,” DFO said in a statement. written response.
This is the case for “oil and gas activities”, which would be “subject to Canada’s environmental assessment process for their impacts”. The ministry adds that “in the future, if there are approved oil and gas permits or activities in a marine refuge, but no extraction takes place, the overlap area will continue to count towards the target. Marine Conservation of Canada”.
Concretely, this means that an area where a company would carry out exploratory drilling would always be counted as being a protected marine environment. However, should the federal government authorize an oil or gas project, the area would be removed from the marine refuge.
In early 2021, the Trudeau government authorized BHP Canada to drill 20 exploration wells in the largest marine refuge established in eastern Canada. This 55,000 km area is referred to as the “Newfoundland Northeast Slope Closure”. The project had been submitted by the oil company two months after the creation of the marine refuge.
According to the federal government, it is “an ecologically and biologically significant area that supports great diversity, including several declining species,” including cetaceans and fish. It is forbidden to use fishing gear that would touch the seabed, but not to drill for oil. Another company, the oil company BP, also holds exploration permits there.
For biologist Sylvain Archambault, who has been analyzing this kind of file for several years, the federal government is showing inconsistency. “Nova Scotia could decide to issue exploration permits in the area, while the protection of the marine environment must be integral and permanent. Exploration projects located just north of this new “marine refuge” have already led to the exploitation of fossil fuels.
“It is worrying to note the precariousness of the status of marine refuge in Canada,” deplores the Society for Nature and Parks of Canada, Quebec section. “The failure of the government to ban the issuance of oil and gas permits within marine refuges leaves the door open for a rollback in protection. Given that Canada must more than double its marine protection network by 2030, this situation is of great concern to us. »
Currently, 14.6% of Canadian marine environments are protected, or 842,821 km2, particularly through marine refuges. This form of protection was created by the Trudeau government. It is less strict than a “marine protected area”.
Sylvain Archambault also believes that Canada should favor this last conservation measure, which makes it possible to preserve the entire ecosystem and close the door to human activities such as commercial fishing, oil exploration or mining exploration. .
This text is taken from our newsletter “Le Courrier de la Planète” of June 28, 2022.