Protecting the North: Premier Charest Announces Guidelines for Plan Nord

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

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Québec Premier Jean Charest and Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks Pierre Arcand recently unveiled the guidelines that are to frame the government’s commitment to dedicate 50% of the area of the Plan Nord territory to environmental protection, safeguarding biodiversity, strengthening the natural heritage and non-industrial development by 2035.

Loupe

“No other government in the world has protected an area so vast in such a short span of time. Our northern heritage is an important symbol of the identity of all Québécois. We are proud of this heritage, and we want to make the Plan Nord a sustainable development and environmental protection benchmark worldwide,” declared the premier.

Below are some of the new guidelines:

Create Protected Areas

This will enable Québec to reach the international target set in Nagoya, which consists of giving over 17 of the land to conservation by 2020. The 20% target for the territory of the Plan Nord will include 12% of the boreal forest blanket that will be set aside for the creation of protected areas.

Develop Ecological and Environmental Knowledge

Seven pilot projects will be used to experiment with new modes of conservation and improve our ecological and environmental knowledge of the land. The pilot projects will enable a variety of conservation practices to be assessed by 2020, thus ensuring the sustainable protection of the environment and the territory.

Initiate Ecological Planning by 2013

Ecological planning steps, in conjunction with other forms of land planning, will help us to identify areas of interest and to adopt medium- and long-term strategic conservation guidelines and objectives that will include sustaining and developing the natural heritage for non-industrial purposes on the territory of the Plan Nord.

The guidelines and the synthesis report on the public consultation are available online at the following Web site: Protecting the North.

Plan Nord

The Plan Nord, unveiled last May 9th, is one of the biggest sustainable development projects in the history of Québec. It will take 25 years to be fully implemented and entail investments of more than 80 billion dollars over the same length of time.

About Plan Nord