Some forty partners are launching the project to create the Parc écologique de l’Archipel de Montréal @L:The Comité

The partners in this association wish to preserve the remaining natural areas in the southwest region of Quebec. They called on all levels of government to support the park project to ensure that a minimum of 12% of that ecological area is protected indefinitely. The organisations asked for speedy political action to protect this “natural heritage which is in danger of disappearing, given that it represents the greatest biodiversity in Quebec."

For years, citizens and organisations have been working together so that such a park will finally be a reality. Natural habitats will be part of a new and unique concept intended to protect and enhance a mosaic of forests, wetlands, green corridors and islands connected to each other by major water systems winding along southern Quebec in order to create the Parc Écologique de l’Archipel de Montréal. To date, more than 100 significant sites have been identified in the target conservation area lying within a radius of about fifty kilometers from the center of the Island of Montreal.

In comparison, Toronto already has had a program to protect the watershed of the metropolitan area since 1954. Thus, in 2005, Ontario managed to create a huge green belt (about 720,000 hectares) in the region. As for BC, five million hectares were set aside to protect farmland and natural habitats around the urban centres thirty years ago. The green belt in and around Vancouver is recognised as a model of success throughout North America.

Partner agencies and the citizens they represent are concerned about the rapidly disappearing natural habitats around them, just as they are worried about climatic changes. They therefore request that the federal and provincial governments fulfill the commitments they made relating to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity signed in 1992, when Jean Charest was then the Minister of the Environment in the federal government. This convention was also supported by the Quebec National Assembly. These commitments must ultimately lead to a better protection of the biodiversity of the entire area. Partner agencies are convinced that the creation of the Parc Écologique de l’Archipel de Montréal would make it possible for these commitments to be respected.

The association of partners invites all agencies interested in this project to join them in pursuing this project. This launch is obviously only the beginning of a collective approach aimed to protect and enhance the region’s natural habitats.

For more information, Nina Gould can be reached at 514-296-6614, Tommy Montpetit at 450-670-7835 or David Fletcher 514-683-7864 or 514-502-5341.