Quebec announces the upcoming creation of “regional projects” to protect the forest caribou of Charlevoix and the mountain caribou of Gaspésie, relegating to later its strategy for protecting other caribou herds in the province, postponed for years.
The surface area and limits of the territories targeted by the projects, their exact location and the regulatory changes envisaged will be the subject of consultations until the end of July with the communities concerned and the First Nations.
The Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks Benoit Charette and the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests Maïté Blanchette Vézina made the announcement Tuesday afternoon in Sainte-Anne- des-Monts, on the eve of the deadline set by Ottawa.
Federal Minister of the Environment Steven Guilbeault ordered the Legault government to present “no later than 1er May » its caribou protection and recovery strategy, failing which Ottawa could take measures, before summer, to protect this threatened species.
Quebec intends to legally protect caribou habitat “consistent with regional realities,” declared Minister Charette, quoted in the press release.
“This is why we are proposing an approach adapted to each of them which will promote the participation of local stakeholders and First Nations,” he added.
“The upcoming consultations will allow us to learn what people have to say and adapt the proposed plan accordingly,” said Minister Blanchette Vézina.
What we are aiming for is a balance between the protection of biodiversity and the economic development of the regions concerned.
Maïté Blanchette Vézina
The measures announced Tuesday will require investments of $59.5 million.
The Gaspé mountain caribou was designated as a threatened species in 1983 by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Species in Canada; the Quebec government listed it as a vulnerable species in 2001, then as a threatened species in 2009.
The woodland caribou has been designated as a vulnerable species since 2005 in Quebec.
The Quebec government’s press release says nothing about the measures that may be proposed to protect other caribou herds, notably that of Pipmuacan, under heavy pressure.
Project postponed in Val-d’Or
Quebec’s project to increase the caribou population of Val-d’Or by adding six caribou captured in Nord-du-Québec has been postponed for a year. This “supplementation” of this herd living in captivity since 2020, announced at the beginning of March, was put on ice “following discussions with various partners in the field […] in order to continue discussions to better integrate their concerns and consolidate the project,” indicated without further details Ève Morin Desrosiers, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment. The Val-d’Or caribou population numbers nine animals, three of which were born in the last three years.
Learn more
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- 37 to 40
- estimate of the Gaspésie caribou population in 2021
source: Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks
- 700 to 1500
- estimate of the Gaspésie caribou population in 1950
source: Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks