Five biodiversity hotspots already identified for protection in the Pontiac
Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist
A new Indigenous-led conservation initiative in the Outaouais is working to protect 30 per cent of the region’s land and freshwater ecosystems by the year 2030.
Leaders from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation’s natural resources and wildlife office will be working to bring together different levels of government with local environmental organizations to create a roadmap for how, and where, to create conservation areas to best protect the biodiversity across the First Nation’s traditional territory.
Currently, about 10 per cent of land in the Outaouais is protected, 7 per cent less than the global total. To meet its target, the project needs to triple the amount of protected land in this region.
This goal is in line with the 30 by 30 commitment made globally by 200 countries, including Canada, at the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal. Quebec’s Ministry of Environment committed to this target a year earlier.
Jonathan Cote is the coordinator for Kitigan Zibi’s Land Guardians program, and the spokesperson for this project.
“It’s to not sit back and wait for the government or NGOs to start the process. It’s saying, ‘Well, we have a table that we can all sit at so let’s all come together and sit at the same table,’” Cote said.
The First Nation’s Land Guardians will guide the field studies being done to understand what biodiversity exists in the region and will offer a leading voice in discussions around how to protect it.
“As Guardians we provide the technical support these projects need,” Cote said. “We’re in the middle of building more capacity to hire more guardians that can go out onto the land and share the traditional knowledge aspect of it as well.”
Cote explained the project’s name – Kidjìmàniàn – means “our canoe”, and can be translated as “paddling the same canoe,” a name fitting for a project that requires a high degree of teamwork and strategizing to reach a target now just over five years away.
“If we look at our region in the Outaouais it’s very populated. There’s a lot of private property, so that’s why it’s important to get everybody at the table,” he said.
Many of the key players who will need to be at the table for this target to be attained gathered in Kitigan Zibi to launch the project on Oct. 17. The group was also celebrating the awarding of $2 million by Environment and Climate Change Canada to the project, financial support for the first phase of the initiative secured by Pontiac-Kitigan Zibi MP Sophie Chatel.
In attendance was Pontiac warden Jane Toller, representing the MRC Pontiac, one of the five MRCs that will be partners in this initiative.
“The reason I’m excited about this project is that I think it’s very important for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to work together,” Toller said. “We can learn a lot about protecting the land from them because they are the keepers of the Earth, so to work together on this, I find it very exciting.”
The first phase of the project will involve community consultations and education sessions to bring the public on board with the project’s goals, completing an in-depth biodiversity assessment to identify which areas need to be conserved, and designing a plan to conserve the chosen areas.
Five Pontiac locations already earmarked for conservation
Some of this work is already well underway. Warden Toller said the MRC’s council of mayors received a presentation from Erik Higgins, the manager of Kitigan Zibi’s natural resources and wildlife office, at a recent plenary meeting.
Higgins said Kitigan Zibi’s Land Guardians and a team of botanists conducted preliminary species inventories across the region over the summer. The work resulted in the identification of nine biodiversity hotspots across the Outaouais, five of which are in the Pontiac.
They include the Waltham escarpment, a piece of land on Allumette Island, and three other locations along the Ottawa River where rare plant species were detected. Higgins said all five Pontiac areas are on public lands.
“This makes [conservation] easier in the sense that no one lives there, but then there are other rights, for example forestry rights, that could be impacted.”
All nine areas were recently submitted to the Quebec government’s call for proposals for protected areas.
“Our goal was really to do all the mapping and have the conversations before proposing areas, but because of the call for projects we felt that if we missed that opportunity we might not get a second one,” Higgins said, explaining the province will review them, evaluate them against its own development objectives, and then submit them to a public consultation period.
“When you look at 30 per cent in the Outaouais, what we’ve proposed is a drop in the bucket, and so that’s why we’re hoping to do a more in-depth analysis to look at where some larger protected areas could be.”