Posted at 12:00 p.m
Eric Pierre Champagne The press
Meals are expensive
One of the rare wetland restoration or creation projects approved by the Department of Environment and Climate Change Mitigation (MELCC) is underway in Montreal at a cost of $1 million. This should make it possible to restore an area of 22,000 m2 in the wooded area of the Marcel Laurin Park in the Saint-Laurent district. Last July, the city hired a research officer specializing in ecological remediation for a three-year term. According to Marc-Olivier Fritsch of Montreal’s communications department, the city is currently preparing a tender to select a specialist firm to carry out the work by 2025. It should be noted that to date only 2.6% of the $92.5 million raised by the Quebec government has been allocated to wetland restoration or creation projects.
PHOTO HUGO-SEBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Boisé du Parc Marcel-Laurin, in the Saint-Laurent district
stop the destruction
According to lawyer Jean-François Girard, who specializes in environmental law, “the real approach would be to stop the destruction of wetlands”. According to him, Quebec risks finding itself in a situation “where things will get worse” in a few years’ time. An opinion shared by biologist Kim Marineau with more than 30 years of experience. “Before you create new wetlands, you have to protect the existing ones,” she says. The situation in Montérégie is particularly critical, she specifies. Wetlands, especially bogs, are also carbon and methane sinks. Greenhouse gases are released when these environments are destroyed or disturbed. A 2021 study published in the journal Science Advances calculated that destroying Canada’s remaining intact wetlands could release 15 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
It takes a plan
“You have to have an overview of this subject,” says André Bélanger, Executive Director of the Rivières Foundation. You cannot simply give future generations problems to solve. He suggests that Quebec take inspiration from the federal Species at Risk Act, which provides for a classification of endangered species. In this way, the MELCC could identify those wetlands that absolutely must be protected and for which there are no compensation options. According to him, the destruction of wetlands for compensation is a kind of “bottomless hole” that will not achieve the goal of no net losses. “The government should also set binding targets. For example, the Ontario government has set a goal of halting net wetland loss in areas with the greatest losses by 2025. Ontario’s strategy also calls for gains by 2030, again in the hardest-hit regions.
A ball carrier
Biologist Kim Marineau believes a board should be set up that will be responsible for setting goals and measuring progress. “It will also require long-term monitoring [des nouveaux milieux humides] and an interview, otherwise all these efforts would have been in vain. In her opinion, the only thing the government can do is wait for organizations or municipalities to show interest in creating new wetlands. Especially since the costs are likely to be significantly higher than the sums that are taken as financial compensation, she believes. She specifies that the new law and its compensation scheme have not really stopped the destruction of these natural habitats. “In the minds of the organizers, nothing has really changed. The only difference is that now they ask how much it will cost [pour détruire des milieux humides]. »
Amendment of the Agricultural Land Protection Act
“It’s a matter of land use planning,” says Sébastien Rioux, director of Ducks Unlimited in Quebec, an organization that specializes in wetland conservation and restoration. In his opinion, we also need to think about expanding the “playing field” to create new wetlands. “We are ripe for an update of the Agricultural Land and Agricultural Activities Protection Act in 2022 in the context of the climate and biodiversity crisis. He considers it necessary to provide for the possibility of developing wetlands on agricultural land “at the right time and in the right place”, without having to systematically request derogations. “These are green infrastructures from which both farmers and the population benefit. »