(Montreal) Several elected officials participated virtually in the unveiling of Anticosti’s application to the UNESCO World Heritage Center on Friday, a week after Ottawa officially transmitted the island’s request.
Updated yesterday at 11:28 am
The mayoress of the Municipality of L’Île-d’Anticosti, Hélène Boulanger, affirmed that this was “a pivotal step reached thanks to years of work and an unprecedented concerted effort”.
The mayor argues that “the Anticosti site will offer an exceptional look at a crucial period, the first mass extinction of living things, at the end of the Ordovician geological period, approximately 445 million years ago”.
The criterion for selecting World Heritage sites that best supports the candidacy of Anticosti Island is the presence of fossils, according to the Parks Canada website.
André Desrochers, scientific director of the steering committee for the Anticosti candidacy, indicated that the island “is really the best natural laboratory on the planet to study the fossils and the sedimentary layers of the first mass extinction on Earth”.
Protected from hydrocarbon exploitation
Present at the virtual press conference, Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault welcomed the decision of former Prime Minister Philippe Couillard “who had the intelligence to put an end to hydrocarbon exploitation projects on the island, a decisive step for the nomination of Anticosti as a UNESCO World Heritage site”.
Remember that over the past decade, this huge island in the middle of the St. Lawrence, recognized as a hunting paradise, has been the subject of covetousness and controversy. Oil and gas companies wanted to exploit its hydrocarbon resources, with the blessing of the Marois government at the time.
The Couillard government then imposed a moratorium in 2017 on exploration to find and exploit hydrocarbons. The Quebec state subsequently had to compensate the companies for approximately $62 million in total.
During the virtual press conference, several speakers emphasized the importance of the work of former Anticosti mayor John Pinault, who played a leading role in preparing the island’s candidacy.
For John Pinault, submitting Anticosti’s candidacy to UNESCO was not only a way of promoting the island’s heritage, but also of prohibiting industrial activity such as gas exploration.
Preserve the riches of the island for future generations
Premier François Legault said he was “very proud to support Anticosti’s candidacy,” in a video shown during the press conference.
“We have a duty to preserve the wealth of the island for future generations,” added the Prime Minister.
“The value of the island is undeniable for Quebecers,” underlined for his part the Minister of the Environment of Quebec, Benoit Charette.
Representatives of First Nations communities were also present, including Jean-Charles Piétacho, who heads the Innu community of Ekuanitshit, in Minganie.
“In the way this file was handled, what we greatly appreciated was having been consulted upstream, from start to finish,” said Chief Piétacho.
A decision expected in 2023
Over the next 18 months, the nomination will be evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The decision of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is expected in 2023.
Currently, only two Quebec sites are on the UNESCO list: Miguasha National Park, in Gaspésie, and the historic district of Old Quebec.