Swath of Ontario boreal forest larger than Toronto to be protected from development

[u/Sachyriel]

https://globalnews.ca/news/12100862/ontario-boreal-forest-development-protection/

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[u/Sachyriel]

The Nature Conservancy of Canada says it has acquired 814 square kilometres of boreal forest and peatlands south of Kapuskasing, previously owned by a company selling carbon offset credits.

That's great news, but uhhhh, what happens to the credits? 

The federal government says it’s contributing $13 million to the project as part of a total $64-million investment from both public and private donors.

TBH I'd expect more but it was a conservation group pushing for this not the feds. Kudos to The Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The announcement comes ahead of next week’s annual United Nations biodiversity summit, where the talks are expected to focus on global progress toward conservation goals.

Ottawa unveiled a new $3.8-billion nature protection strategy earlier this year intended to put Canada’s goals within reach, months after the federal environmental watchdog found it to be more than one-million square kilometres short of its 2025 goal to protect 25 per cent of its lands and inland water.

So is it a new plan or are they reannouncing spending from earlier? I know governments like to do that, but maybe we expect them to do the reannouncing at the summit next week?

[u/MineralAcids → u/Sachyriel]

I'd assume the 13 million come out of the 3,8 billion that were announced earlier this year,.this is the type of project they said they'd be funding. That's not really a re-annoucement. It's how these things work, a large lump sum is announced and then when it's allocated in bits and pieces they talk about that too. Why should they not?

And it's also hardly a reannoumcement when they say "Nature is important, that's why earlier this year we put this amount towards conservation"

[u/limelifesavers → u/MineralAcids]

Yeah, it's definitely a "remember we said we earmarked 3.8b for nature protection? We're spending 13m of that money on this."

Makes sense as if they didn't maje an announcement, people wouldn't know where that money was going, and transparency is important

[u/FleurDeThree → u/MineralAcids]

After doing a little digging, it seems like the Federal contribution came from the Natural Heritage Conservation Program, which is part of Federal Department for Environment and Climate Change Canada.

It takes a while for the Feds to release money to the departments and for targeted programs to release funding to partners. And then for federal and provincial partners to talk to each other. And then longer still for consultations with local communities (if any), etc. etc.

I suspect the funding came out of the $90 million allocated in 2022 intended to purchase up to 180,000 hectares and intended to cover expenses out to 2025-26.

Edit: Ninja edit for clarity.

[u/Sachyriel → u/FleurDeThree]

That's the good stuff, thanks for tracking it down.

[u/interrupting-octopus → u/Sachyriel]

So is it a new plan or are they reannouncing spending from earlier? I know governments like to do that, but maybe we expect them to do the reannouncing at the summit next week?

It wouldn't be Doug Ford without at least three announcements about the upcoming announcement, so reannouncing is right in the playbook.

Still good news overall, though.

[u/Saidear → u/interrupting-octopus]

I wasn't aware that Doug Ford was in the federal government though.

[u/Nearby_Selection_683 → u/interrupting-octopus]

Sounds about right. First their is the Provincial photo op, then the Province with the Indigenous community photo op, then the Province with the Feds photo op... etc... etc...

[u/Curried_Orca]

In Canadian terms the phrase 'larger than Toronto' is pretty much meaningless-this is the second largest country on earth.

As to the area in question I know it well-nothing too special but some decent sportfishing.

[u/zabby39103]

I know this is going to be an unpopular thing to say, but how much is enough for this type of thing? We have protected a lot of Canada, and much of it still is just plain inaccessible. I'm not under the impression that we're particularly poor stewards of the land and we want to develop our natural resources.

[u/Sachyriel → u/zabby39103]

25% of the country is the goal now, but eventually we could see 30% of the country protected.

But I'm an optimist, so I still want closed down factories, powerplants, orphan oil wells, etc, cleaned up and the land rehabilitated to something closer to how people found it. It doesn't have to be pristine forest again, but a fallow field to let wildlife return is a power bar.

As for how much is enough? I'd want to eventually ship of Theseus the entire country, 100% rehabilitated or protected. Now of course that excludes big permanent settlements like major cities, but if we have a ghost town next to a tapped out silver mine we can repurpose the mine to hold old waste, and either tear down or preserve the town as a museum (ghost town meaning no living people). 

But why should we stop with only extracting and exploiting the Earth when we can try to do better than those who came before us, for the good of those after us?

When you ask how much is enough, I think you're asking the wrong question. It's where can a balance be found, rehabbing old industrial sites back to nature gives us more breathing room to exploit other sites. Conservation is just one strategy, and it will not work alone.