If the Legault government’s strategy towards woodland caribou was a TV series, we could say that all the episodes so far have been distressing.
Our elected officials have served us for years with a scenario made up of denial of science and crude maneuvers to gain time.
Rather than act, Quebec, for example, ordered a “meta-study”, then an “independent commission”. However, we have known for a long time that the caribou are in decline, and we know the main cause: the degradation of the territory caused by the forestry industry.
This sad soap opera could soon end. The government must finally unveil its forest-dwelling caribou recovery strategy by the end of the month.
This new episode cannot be another flop. It must represent the final outcome.
Quebec must come up with a serious plan that respects what scientists have been trying to say for too long.
Otherwise, the scenario could get out of hand even more. Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has promised to intervene if Quebec proves unable to protect the caribou.
Ottawa would thus respect its legal obligations, and obviously someone has to put on their pants to protect the caribou. But it portends a painful federal-provincial clash that would fuel tensions between proponents of conservation and those of economic development.
As much for Quebecers as for the caribou, it would be much better for Quebec to do the job properly.
Will the Legault government’s plan to ensure the survival of woodland caribou be the right one?
We will obviously have to wait for its unveiling to judge.
However, there are reasons to be concerned. Quebec is currently conducting “pre-consultations” with several people involved.
However, among those who have seen the broad lines of the strategy, some state publicly that it is akin to an “extinction strategy”. Others are more discreet, but nonetheless preoccupied.
We sincerely hope that Quebec listens to the critics and is active behind the scenes to rectify the situation.
The Innu communities of Essipit and Pessamit, in particular, claim that there is nothing to protect the caribou of Pipmuacan, straddling Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Côte-Nord, other than a protection corridor insufficient in their eyes.
Biologists warn, however, that this herd risks being the next to disappear if significant efforts are not made. A strategy that did not take this into account would be incomplete and unacceptable.
Another trap looms. In its documents, the Independent Commission on Woodland Caribou suggests that a rate of disturbance of the territory of 35% allows the survival of the caribou. This value is even presented as a threshold to be reached.
However, biologists say instead that a territory degraded to 35% only offers a 60% chance that a population of caribou can survive.
” […] We would like to emphasize the extent to which a development strategy that would be based on reaching and maintaining a level of disturbance of 35% – as recommended by the Government of Quebec – is risky and offers no guarantee that the caribou populations will be self-sustaining,” wrote a group of 50 experts in a recent brief.
Hopefully the government has taken notice.
Yes, the caribou protection strategy will have impacts on the forest industry. The fires that are currently ravaging several regions of Quebec are also likely to exacerbate the tensions between wildlife protection and economic development, eating away at both the caribou territory and the wood supply for the foresters.
But experts like Christian Messier, professor at the University of Quebec in Outaouais, affirm that it is possible “to have the butter and the money of the butter”.
Intensive forest management, he says, would boost annual yields from 1 to 2 cubic meters of harvested timber per hectare to yields of 5 to 15 m3.
Carrying out such a development in certain areas would make it possible to preserve others for biodiversity.
The Legault government has behaved so far in an embarrassing way in the case of the woodland caribou. He now has a legal and moral obligation to protect this species and to show that he really cares about biodiversity.