MI’KMA’KI (NOVA SCOTIA) - Over 50 groups from across the province came together in Halifax today to send a united message: the Nova Scotia government needs to accelerate its efforts and collaborate with the public in order to meet its protected areas commitments. At the rate that the Houston government has been protecting land, the Province won’t reach its legislated commitment to protect 20 per cent of the province by 2030. In fact, at the current rate, it would take the Province until 2041—11 years after its legislated deadline.
“The legislated 20 per cent by 2030 commitment is both important and achievable. But the Province needs to seriously pick up the pace," says Raymond Plourde, the Ecology Action Centre’s Senior Wilderness Coordinator. “The Province can’t keep dragging its feet on protecting these sites of outstanding conservation value, and certainly can’t go backward by jeopardizing existing parks and protected areas.”
“We’re very concerned over public comments that the Premier and his government have made about being open to development proposals for any of our Provincial Parks and Protected Areas,” says Margaret MacDonell of Save West Mabou Beach Provincial Park. “We’re here today to say that undermining years of protected areas work is simply unacceptable. Our existing parks and protected areas are special places that are meant to be protected in perpetuity, and development is precisely what they are supposed to be protected from.”
Over 50 conservation, community, recreation, health, faith and seniors’ groups from across the province came together today to urge the Houston government to move forward in collaboration with the public and Mi’kmaq Rightsholders. At the press conference, the Ecology Action Centre and the Healthy Forest Coalition unveiled a new online map showing more than 30 sites of high conservation value. These are sites on public lands that groups across the province have identified and nominated to the government for assessment and potential protection. Together, these sites would protect approximately 127,864 hectares (1278.64 square kms) of Nova Scotia’s natural heritage. They would also contribute 2.3 per cent towards the legislated 20 per cent target.
The map can be viewed at www.nspubliclands.ca
Despite their ecological importance and community support, the community-proposed protected areas are being studiously ignored by the government.
“We’ve been trying for years to get specific areas of public land protected, but it’s just not happening,” says Nina Newington, President of Save Our Old Forests. “No matter how hard we try, this government refuses to engage with the public. The Collaborative Protected Areas Strategy, when it came out in 2023, included the results of a public consultation. People said they wanted “urgent action, a collaborative approach, and a transparent process.” That’s still what we want. What we have gotten instead is a brick wall.”
A recent poll conducted by Narrative Research and commissioned by the Ecology Action Centre reaffirmed that a strong majority (67 per cent) of Nova Scotians want the government to protect more wilderness, even when weighed against other considerations like resource extraction and industrial use.
The Canadian Association of Retired Persons, N.S. Chapter, recently surveyed its 8,765 members regarding environmental interests. Eighty-eight per cent of respondents supported the acceleration of the government's efforts to reach the province’s 20 per cent protection target by 2030.
“Protecting land is a promise from this generation to leave at least some intact nature for future generations,” says Gretchen Fitzgerald, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada Foundation. “The Houston government needs to honour its commitments, engage with the public and complete Nova Scotia’s Parks and Protected Areas Network.”
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Lindsay Lee
Wilderness Community Outreach Coordinator| Ecology Action Centre
(902) 223-3916
lindsay.lee@ecologyaction.ca
Background and Context:
In the PC Party election platform in 2021, Tim Houston promised to ensure Nova Scotia reached 20 per cent land protection by 2030. Later that year, he enshrined that commitment into law through the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act. During Houston’s first term, slow but steady progress was made towards the goal, and in December 2023, the Houston Government released the “Collaborative Protected Areas Strategy – An Action Plan for Achieving 20 Per cent.” In it, the government committed to protect more public lands, create new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas and to collaborate with the public. But since the November 2024 election, progress has slowed to a crawl, and government engagement with the public has been virtually non-existent.
The commitment to reach 20 per cent protection by 2030 is Nova Scotia’s part in reaching Canada’s national 30 per cent by 2030 target, under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, a worldwide effort to stem the precipitous decline in nature and wild species.
Additional Information:
Website and interactive map
Photos for Press Coverage, including photo credits