Flora threatened or vulnerable | Quebec ignores 24 endangered plants

The Quebec government is ignoring the recommendations of its scientists, who ask that we protect 24 additional species of rare plants, learned The Press two weeks before the opening in Montreal of the UN conference on biodiversity COP15.

No fewer than 15 of these 24 recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Threatened or Vulnerable Flora, obtained through a request for access to documents from public bodies, have been “pending” for more than 11 years. The most recent are from November 2019.

Most species awaiting protection, such as downy brome (Bromus pubescens), hairy wildrye (Elymus villosus) or Pringle’s Aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum var. pringlei), are found in the south of the province. Biodiversity is richer there, but there is also greater pressure on habitats, due to urban sprawl. It would also be to avoid obstacles to the development and exploitation of natural resources that successive governments do not act, argue the experts consulted by The Press.

“I have the impression that it’s quite simply a question of political will which is non-existent”, drops Professor Luc Brouillet, a botanist from the University of Montreal who was a member of the Committee for eight years, before retire in 2019.

“We always wonder if there really is a real desire to protect,” adds Frédéric Coursol, who holds the position of assistant botanist at the Montreal Botanical Garden and who is a member of the Committee.

Rather, Quebec says it has “prioritized” the recommendations according to criteria such as the endemic or heritage character of a plant, the fact that it is an “umbrella species” whose designation makes it possible to protect others, and the existence or not significant threats that state protection may have an effect on.

But this is not the first time that Quebec has been accused of dragging its feet on conservation. Last month, The Press revealed that the Wildlife Advisory Committee had not been consulted for five years and that no additional animal species had been protected in 13 years.

A “paper law”

Of the Committee’s 24 recommendations, 17 seek to designate species as threatened, the most critical status under provincial law. The other seven aim to designate vulnerable species. The Act respecting threatened or vulnerable species in particular prohibits the harvesting, exploitation or destruction of a designated species, or the disturbance of its habitat. Many exceptions apply, however.

Ministerial notices made public last month nevertheless demonstrated the impact that legal protection can have, as the extension of Highway 25 has been blocked due to the presence of vulnerable species on the proposed route. .

Anne-Sophie Doré, lawyer at the Center québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE), is not surprised that so many species have been waiting for a status for so long. “It’s a problem because ultimately, we have a paper law, but we don’t really apply it,” she said.

And without protection, some of these plants inevitably see their status deteriorate, according to Mr. Coursol. For others, we simply don’t know, since the last evaluation dates back too long, points out Stéphanie Pellerin, botanist at the Botanical Garden and member of the Committee. Such a waiting period “is not normal”, she says.

Only 17 Committee recommendations have been approved since 2010, including those to remove three species from protection or downgrade three others from threatened to vulnerable.

Federally protected

At least two of the pending species, the lily-leaved dragonfly (Liparis liliifolia) and butternut (Juglans cinerea), are protected by the Species at Risk Act (SARA) of the federal government.

The walnut tree is listed as “endangered” due to a “fungal disease that […] predicted to cause the decline of almost the entire population in a single generation,” says the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), the federal equivalent of the Advisory Committee.

It is because we believe that protection “would not change anything” that Quebec is not acting on this case, says the spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Caroline Cloutier.

Liparis is a small orchid “continuously vulnerable to chance events” due to the small size of the Canadian population, according to COSEWIC. The species is listed as threatened under federal law, and only one population is found in Quebec, the others are in southern Ontario. M^me Cloutier did not offer a specific rationale for this species.

SARA requires the federal government to intervene when “provincial law does not effectively protect” a listed species. Ottawa could therefore compensate for the apathy of Quebec, “but in practice, it may be a little more complicated”, nuance M^e Dore, from the CQDE.

The lawyer observes that there is no deadline provided for in the law, and that the provision has only very rarely been applied. This was particularly the case to protect the western chorus frog in Longueuil last year.

Quebec has “all the tools to assume leadership in the protection of these species on its territory” and “does not wish in any case to resort to an intervention under the SARA”, argues Mr.^me Cloutier, from the Ministry of the Environment. “The use of an emergency decree [en vertu de la LEP] is unilateral and has significant consequences for the sectors affected and for the Quebec economy,” she adds.

Asked about this by The PressEnvironment and Climate Change Canada has not said whether it intends to intervene.