This Thursday, April 28, the Independent Commission on Woodland and Mountain Caribou will hold public hearings in Val-d’Or.
The First Nations of Lac Simon, Long Point and Kitcisakik call on the solidarity of the population of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region and of all of Quebec to demand that the government together put in place concrete measures supported by our traditional knowledge and science to save the Val-d’Or caribou population and its essential habitat.
Your opinion
interests us.
Do you have an opinion to share? A text between 300 and 600 words that you would like to submit to us?
A critical point
The situation has reached an alarming level. For several years now, our three First Nations have spared no effort in suggesting solutions and collaborating with governments to save the Val-d’Or caribou herd and restore its essential habitat, located on the territory ancestral to our First Nations.
In particular, we have mandated the most renowned caribou expert in Quebec, researcher Martin-Hugues St-Laurent, to identify the best remaining habitats and develop restoration scenarios by integrating the traditional knowledge of our members. We presented a credible and detailed plan to the government, which only remained to be adopted and implemented.
Yet we are at a tipping point stemming from decades of inaction. The good news is that it is not too late to act.
The Independent Commission on Woodland and Mountain Caribou, which was launched without prior consultation with Indigenous peoples, presents two scenarios:
● The first proposes the restoration and protection of certain areas of habitat essential for the maintenance of the 12 populations of woodland caribou, but the delimitation of these habitats does not take into account the studies which have identified the last good habitats to allow the survival of the species.
● The second, totally unacceptable, simply proposes abandoning certain caribou populations, including that of Val-d’Or, to have no impact on the allowable cut.
What we are asking the Commission to do is simple: Revise its first scenario in order to integrate the real good habitats for the caribou population of Val-d’Or and to include the solutions suggested by our three First Nations.
The government must recognize that caribou are central to the identity, language, history and culture of the Anicinape Nation. It is high time to consider forests for all the benefits they provide us, beyond the volumes of wood to be cut. By protecting mature forests, we increase our resilience to climate change, we protect the flora and fauna that depend on them in addition to the water resources found there, and we open up to other economic opportunities, linked for example, the creation of protected areas co-managed with us, the First Nations.
Act together
You can count on our contribution in the efforts to remedy decades of government decisions taken to the detriment of the health of the region’s forest. We consider that it is together that we can strive for real harmony with nature and endangered species.
Join your voice to that of the First Nations of Lac Simon, Long Point and Kitcisakik to demand concrete and immediate actions to save the caribou population of Val-d’Or and their habitat, which respect our ancestral rights.
We therefore invite you to submit a brief to the Commission. It’s easy, we have prepared a template that we invite you to complete with what is important to you.
We have a concrete opportunity to act together for the common good. Kitci meegwetch!
Representatives of the Lac Simon, Long Point and Kitcisakik First Nations