2023-06-04 06:08:40
In Canada, Quebec has a mechanism to protect forests in perpetuity. A dozen independent conservation organizations take charge of portions of the territories, donated or purchased by citizens. Report on these lands sheltered from urbanization.
In the Quebec region of Lanaudière, located an hour’s drive from Montreal, Joannie, a student, plants a maple tree in very humid soil. The black soils, transformed former swamps, have long been used as dumps, following having been exploited to extract peat.
The 20 hectares of these lands now have the status of an ecological nature reserve and belong to Fiducie Lanaudière, a conservation organization.
Professor Daniel Kneeshaw, who leads a team of students including Joannie, says that many members of the organization have come to work on these premises to take care of the “dirty work”. “The fact that students come back year following year is very encouraging,” he said on the program Tout un monde, at the edge of a pond in which frogs, salamanders and birds live, where he does not there was nothing 7 years ago.
Lifetime protection
Fiducie Lanaudière received a donation from Jean and Réal Baril, two brothers who ceded nearly 90 hectares of wild forest that they had owned for 20 years. Fearing that it would disappear with the arrival of promoters in the region, they wanted it to be protected.
By handing over their forest to Fiducie Lanaudière, the two brothers ensure that their forest will never be exploited or razed, and this in perpetuity. A deed signed before a notary certifies this.
“The price of land on the edge of a lake has exploded in Quebec. The idea is to ensure that there are still natural environments that will remain in 20 or 40 years in an inhabited environment in the south of the province by ceding our land to conservation organizations”, indicates one of the owners, for whom it is a gesture for the protection of biodiversity.
According to him, the action must also make it possible to achieve the objective of 30% protection of the territories that the countries set at the UN conference in Montreal last December.
Trust in independent bodies
The possible disappearance of the organization Fiducie Lanaudière has even been recorded. “We planned in the founding act to transfer all our assets to another organization which has exactly the same mission as us in the event that we would be more able to meet our obligations, financial for example, in order to be certain that the land does not end up on the market”, explains Michel Leboeuf, head of Fiducie Lanaudière.
A former environmental lawyer, donor Jean Baril does not fully trust the government to protect his forest “given the changing political orientation”. “Concerning the legal organization of conservation organizations like the Trust, I have no doubt regarding the long-term vocation of conservation. The Baril forest will remain in perpetuity,” he says.
Across Quebec, this type of organization solicits forest donations or mobilizes citizens to buy wild lands, hoping that biodiversity will take precedence over urbanization and the exploitation of nature.
Pascale Guéricolas/ once more
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