CPAWS welcomes new funding for land conservation in Nova Scotia
25 Sep 09
Halifax – The Nova Scotia government has allocated an additional $66 million in capital spending in its most recent budget, released yesterday, for acquiring private lands for conservation. The new spending will help the province meet its environmental goals set out in the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act.
CPAWS is extremely pleased to see this move, which the organization has been encouraging for the past five years to improve the chances for Nova Scotia’s wilderness ecosystems to survive.
“It’s make-or-break time” says Chris Miller, a CPAWS national conservation manager based in Nova Scotia. “Right now, large tracks of wilderness are for sale, and once they’re snapped up by land speculators and carved up for development, they’re lost to the people of Nova Scotia forever”.
Forest lands that have been sold in recent years have been converted to the real estate market, with prime land on lakes and rivers and the coast often being sub-divided for development. This permanent conversion of wilderness in favour of development is a major threat to the long-term survival of intact forest systems in Nova Scotia.
“This is a big step in the right direction”, added Miller.
This new funding means that the province can now start acquiring large tracks of privately-owned wilderness for sale, controlled by some of the large forestry companies in the province. Last year, the forest company J.D. Irving Ltd. placed nearly 70,000 hectares of land for sale on the market and some of that land has already been purchased by private interests.
Almost 15% of Nova Scotia’s landmass is owned by four forestry companies: J.D. Irving, Neenah Paper, Abitibi-Bowater, and Wagner. Many of these lands contain high conservation value, including some of the last remaining old growth forest stands in Nova Scotia and important species-at-risk habitat for species like the Blandings turtle and rare coastal plain flora.
The new funding was announced in the Nova Scotia provincial budget, released by the Nova Scotia government yesterday. The announcement is not expected to increase the province’s deficit, as the funds will come from reshuffling priorities in the capital spending program, moving funding from highways and other projects into land conservation priorities.
“We’re pleased that the government has taken a hard-look at its capital spending program for this year, and adjusted the funding priorities to enable the government to act on protecting these large tracks of land before it’s too late”, says Miller
The $66 million in new funding brings the total amount of land acquisition funds for this year to $83.1 million, according to the budget documents.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is Canada’s leading national voice for wilderness conservation, with 13 regional chapters across the country. Since 1963, CPAWS has played a lead role in creating over two-thirds of Canada’s protected areas.
Contact:
Chris Miller, Ph.D.
National Manager, Wilderness Conservation and Climate Change
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
201-1099 Marginal Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4P7
902-446-4155
cmiller@cpaws.org