(Quebec) The Legault government announces that it is delaying the tabling of a strategy for the recovery of the woodland caribou until 2023. Instead, he launched an independent commission – without any biologist – to look into the future of this endangered species, a cold shower for environmentalists and the Innu Nation.
Two scenarios will be studied by the commission headed by Nancy Gélinas, dean of the faculty of forestry, geography and geomatics at Laval University and professor-researcher in forest economics. The first will be made up of “possible solutions proposed by the regional operational groups”; the second will be “without additional impact on wood supplies”, ie it would not reduce the amount of forest available to logging companies.
The woodland caribou has been listed in the Quebec register of endangered species since 2005. However, the government constantly postpones the adoption of concrete actions to protect it, deplore environmental groups.
“The time has come to act and realize that most of the science behind caribou recovery, we have it,” said Alain Branchaud, director general of the Quebec wing of the Société pour la nature et les. parks (SNAP Quebec).
“By further postponing its strategy […], The Minister [des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs du Québec] abandons its role of protecting endangered wildlife species. It makes you wonder if his real strategy is not simply to order studies […] while waiting for the last caribou to disappear ”, denounces the general director of Nature Quebec, Alice-Anne Simard.
Pierre Dufour replica
Minister Pierre Dufour responds to the criticisms of these “small groups”. He maintains that the commission will be able to seek external advice from biologists, and that concrete actions have already been launched to protect the species, for example the construction of enclosures in Abitibi, Charlevoix and Gaspésie to protect caribou. predators as well as the closure of forest roads. He also points out that protected areas have been announced.
It’s like we don’t want to see the good deeds we do […]. It is valuable, but the small groups who are against the work that we do never raise these actions.
Pierre Dufour, Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks
Mr. Dufour maintains that after his “caribou tour” and a meta-analysis on the subject, there was still a lack of information, particularly on the effects of climate change, to submit his plan, which is scheduled for 2021.
According to caribou specialist Martin-Hugues St-Laurent, professor at the University of Quebec at Rimouski, it would have been possible to set up this commission while immediately announcing an action plan. “The construction of enclosures attacks the symptom. It’s like scooping water out of a rowboat without plugging the hole that brings the water in. The problem is protecting its habitat, ”he emphasizes.
Fragile trust
Environmentalists are not the only ones to criticize Mr. Dufour. In an open letter published on Monday in Press, the Innu Council of Pessamit denounced this decision in advance. Mr. Dufour has not read it, but he wishes to reassure them: protective actions are being implemented on the Lower North Shore.
The chief responsible for the caribou file, Réal McKenzie, of Matimekush – Lac John, opposes the government decision. “The Chiefs of the Innu Nation are amazed not to have been contacted upstream by the Government of Quebec for the establishment of such an approach on an issue so crucial for our nation and its members,” he said. affirmed to Press. “Our expertise, our knowledge and our millennial relationship with Atiku [le caribou] were not considered in the composition of the commission since it does not include any indigenous representative. […] Confidence, already so fragile, is not there, ”he laments.
With the collaboration of Fanny Lévesque, Press