Environmentalists are urging the Quebec government to present its plan to protect caribou habitat, several years after promising to implement a strategy aimed at saving the herds.
The project was to be presented in June, but the Ministry of the Environment postponed it because of the numerous forest fires which were then hitting Quebec territory. At the time, the government said it wanted to examine the impact of the fires on caribou and logging.
We wanted to present the plan at the end of 2023, but the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, confirmed to the daily newspaper The Press that the unveiling of the strategy had been pushed back “to mid-January or thereabouts”.
The Canadian Press attempted to get an update on this subject, but the government did not respond to its request.
“History only repeats itself,” laments the president of the environmental group Action boréale, Henri Jacob. He recalls that the Coalition Avenir Québec had promised the implementation of a policy to save the caribou before coming to power in 2018. The plan was to be presented initially in 2019, but it has always been postponed since that time.
“Push back and push back [le processus] is a strategy. And during this time, we continue to cut wood in parts of the forest which are essential to the caribou,” he believes.
Mr. Jacob says there is no reason to postpone the protection plan, not even forest fires. The policy should still be the subject of a consultation, he reminds us. The government could then take the opportunity to modify its plan to take into account the consequences of the forest fires.
Alain Branchaud, general director of the environmental group SNAP Québec, notes the urgency of the situation. According to him, caribou herds are in decline throughout the province. He blames the forestry industry, whose practices contribute to disrupting or even destroying the animal’s habitat.
“We cannot accept further delays,” he says.
He said a serious plan to save caribou should include protecting at least 35,000 square kilometers of their critical habitat. The federal government, citing scientific studies, has already indicated that it is necessary to achieve a minimum percentage of 65% undisturbed habitat in order to maintain the caribou population, but Mr. Branchaud insists that this is the bare minimum.
According to a study published by the scientific journal land, some 140,000 square kilometers of forest have been lost since 1976 to the forestry industry in Quebec and Ontario. This decline has had obvious repercussions on the caribou population. The Canadian and Australian researchers found that only 2 of the 21 caribou ranges they studied respected the percentage of 65%.
“Significant changes must be made to the management of the boreal forest in Ontario and Quebec in order to make it more sustainable, from an ecological point of view. We must place more emphasis on the protection and restoration of the oldest forests and reduce the dangers for caribou populations,” we read in the study.
While waiting to present its strategy, the government is relying on other measures to help protect the caribou. Among them: the controversial decision to confine three herds and kill the packs of wolves that approach them.
A report was presented in 2022 following a series of consultations with stakeholders.
Despite the delay, Mr. Branchaud says he wants to be cautiously optimistic.
The Quebec government is committed to protecting 30% of its territory. The federal government hopes to follow suit. Mr. Branchaud says these promises could force governments to work with Indigenous communities to conserve caribou habitat. He also believes that the Quebec population increasingly understands the importance of managing forests in a more sustainable way, despite resistance from the powerful industry.
He emphasizes that the decision to split the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife in 2022 was positive since the interests of the two sectors are often at odds.
Henri Jacob says he is impatient to see the future government strategy, but he does not believe that Quebec will give up lucrative forestry and mining activities in caribou habitats, even if these are important for many plants and other animal species.
“We no longer trust the government,” he says, adding that he would be happy to be wrong.