Media Centre

Press Releases - 2010

Quebec's Boreal Forest Legislation Would Provide a Model for the World

 

QUEBEC CITY, March 26, 2010: Today the Government of Quebec announced its intent to introduce legislation to protect half of the northern Boreal region, covered by the Plan Nord, from all industrial activity. Suzann Méthot, the Canadian Boreal Initiative’s Quebec Director, issued the following statement in response:

“Legislation from the Charest administration that places protection before development, with regional planning in partnership with Aboriginal leaders and communities, informed by science and traditional knowledge, would create a new way of doing business — one that would provide a new model for the rest of the world.”

Background
The Canadian Boreal Forest, stretching from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Yukon, is a part of the world’s largest intact forest, surpassing the Amazon Rainforest in size, ecological integrity, and carbon storage. It stores 22% of the carbon on the earth’s land surface. More than 20% of its woodlands are located in Quebec. In 2007, 1500 international scientists, led by members of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recommended that at least half of Canada's Boreal Forest be permanently protected. In March 2009, Premier Charest pledged that 50% of the land area covered by the Plan Nord would be protected from industrial development and that industrial activity in the other portions would be held to sustainable standards.

About the Canadian Boreal Initiative
Established in 2003, the Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI) works with a wide range of conservation organizations, Aboriginal communities, industry, and other interested parties to link science, policy, and conservation activities in Canada’s Boreal Forest. For more information, visit http://www.borealcanada.ca/

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For more information, please contact
Suzann Méthot, Regional Director, Quebec
Canadian Boreal Initiative
(514) 792-1843
smethot<at>borealcanada ca