This text is taken from the Courrier de la Planète of September 20, 2022. To subscribe, click here.
Quebec is home to vast natural environments and rich biodiversity. But several species are threatened and the pressures of urban and industrial development are stronger than ever. What are the parties in the race for the October 3 election proposing to preserve our ecosystems? The duty asked them the question, in addition to questioning experts on this subject.
Future Quebec Coalition
The party led by François Legault promises to protect 30% of Quebec’s natural land environments by 2030. As part of a second term, the caquistes would invest $525 million to achieve their goals.
The majority of this amount would go to the creation and expansion of national parks. Three new national parks would see the light of day. The most important project that would come to fruition would be the Nibiischii National Park. Expected for several years, it represents an area of nearly 12,000 km2. However, it is already counted in the calculation of the territory protection objectives. Completion of the project will therefore not improve the rate of protection of natural environments.
Nearly $100 million would be used to improve the network of protected areas on public and private lands. This means that the government would acquire land belonging to individuals or companies. This type of measure should allow, according to the caquists, to increase the protection of natural environments in the south of the province.
Quebec Liberal Party
The Liberals promise to protect 30% of terrestrial environments by 2030 while prioritizing “forgotten territories” south of the 49th parallel. It is true that the Legault government has set aside 62 protected area projects there, mainly to preserve economic development interests, particularly those of the forest industry.
In terms of safeguarding endangered species, the Liberals intend in particular to implement a “strategy for the protection of natural environments and biodiversity”, in order to renaturalize habitats and to supervise wetlands more effectively. These have suffered a marked decline in Quebec, while their protection is necessary for the survival of many wildlife species.
With regard to the marine environment, the Liberal Party does not want to commit to a specific protection target, but promises to set an objective “in collaboration with the federal government”.
Solidarity Quebec
The solidarity plan to combat the climate crisis includes measures for “the protection of biodiversity and natural territories”. In particular, they are committed to protecting 30% of Quebec’s territory by 2030.
Priority would be given to the territories in the south of the province, which are still very little preserved from human activity. The training also promises to reduce “tensions between the interests of the forest industry and the need to protect endangered species,” such as caribou. To achieve this, “a new social contract” would frame the exploitation of natural resources, including “a modernization of the forest regime”.
“In addition to fighting against climate change, we are thus proposing a set of natural solutions to mitigate or cancel out several problems arising from it, such as the increase in the frequency of floods and heat waves or even the deterioration of the quality of the air”, specifies the party in a written answer.
Parti Quebecois
The PQ promise to protect 30% of natural land and marine environments by 2030. “We also want to strengthen the conservation of the territory, in particular by setting up ecological corridors and ensuring the representativeness of the network in all regions of Quebec. “, adds the party.
In order to better protect the natural environments in the south of the province, the Parti Québécois undertakes to adopt, by the end of the year, “regional targets for the protection of 20% of territories in urban and peri-urban areas, and 30% of the territory south of the 49th parallel”.
The sovereignist formation also intends to “modernize” the Quebec law on the protection of endangered species, “to add a component on strong animal protection”, and to “develop a protection plan for the forest caribou”.
Conservative Party of Quebec
The training led by Éric Duhaime did not answer the questions of the To have to. It was simply stated that the request had been sent to the “political committee”.
What should be the priorities for the protection of natural environments and biodiversity?
“We need concrete commitments,” says Jérôme Dupras, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics at the Université du Québec en Outaouais. “The targets, like the idea of protecting 30% of natural environments, are interesting. But then we have to specify how we are going to achieve this, by involving actors such as municipalities, for example. We must also look at governance, to review the place of biodiversity in the management of the State.
Mr. Dupras believes that it would be important to place wildlife issues under the responsibility of the Quebec Ministry of the Environment. Currently, he recalls, the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks must both defend the interests of the forest industry and the protection of species such as woodland caribou. “It’s a matter of consistency.”
According to a study conducted by Mr. Dupras and his colleagues, the next government can also count on the support of the population. The results of this research indicate that Quebecers are “sensitive” to the issues of preserving biodiversity and endangered species, such as the woodland caribou or the St. Lawrence beluga. However, by protecting these species, we automatically protect larger ecosystems and the species that depend on them.
According to the organization Nature Québec, the next government of Québec will have to “systematically integrate the protection of biodiversity and natural environments at all stages of territorial planning, including the notions of connectivity and ecological restoration, particularly in the southern Quebec”.
Its coordinator of the Biodiversity and Forest program, Frédéric Venne, also emphasizes that the State must provide funding to restore ecosystems on public and private lands, which includes “the acquisition of natural environments”.
The organization also urges Quebec to put in place the necessary measures for the recovery of the various caribou populations in the province, which are showing marked declines.