MONTREAL – With native plants and animals disappearing or facing extinction, and continuing pressure to develop agricultural lands, forests and natural spaces, it is urgent for Montreal-area municipalities to act, speakers at a biodiversity conference said yesterday.
The United Nations has declared 2010 the international year of biodiversity, and speakers yesterday said there is great potential to preserve biodiversity – the variety of plants, animals and ecosystems – in the Montreal region.
Protecting those organisms – from bacteria to fish, plants and humans – is a challenge as important as climate change, said Guy Garand of the Comité régional de l’environnement de Laval.
He made the comments at the Sommet Biodiversité Montréal, a two-day conference organized by the Comité régional de l’environnement de Montréal, which represents more than 100 environmental and social groups on the island.
In the greater Montreal region – which includes Laval, Longueuil, and the North and South Shores – more than 120 kinds of plants, trees, amphibians and birds are threatened, said biologist Kim Marineau. Already 63 different vines, eight kinds of plants and seven kinds of animals have disappeared. There are 37 forests left that are bigger than 500 hectares, Marineau said.
"Those small forests are the last refuge for many species," Marineau said.
Only 1.2 per cent of land in the greater Montreal region has protected status, according to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Ryan Young is a naturalist who was elected to Ste. Anne de Bellevue town council last fall promising to slow development in the Anse à l’Orme eco-territory on the West Island. He expressed frustration yesterday that activists have to try to get elected to municipal councils in order to protect green spaces.
Urgent action is required for green-space protection on the island of Montreal, he said.
"We are at a crucial point, it is an emergency," he said, adding that the west-end Meadowbrook Golf Course, which is owned by a private developer, is among the land on the island that should be protected. "Anything that is green should remain green."
Municipalities have all the tools they need Рfrom zoning bylaws to legal precedents Рto protect natural spaces, said biologist and lawyer Jean-Fran̤ois Girard.
"What we have is a lack of will," said Girard, of the Centre québecois du droit de l’environnement. "If we want to protect natural spaces, we can do it."
In Boucherville, city officials worked with Nature-Action Québec and local property owners to preserve forests and natural spaces in three different areas of the town, said Pierre Pion, Boucherville’s director of urban development. But Jean Hubert of Nature Quebec pointed out that it took pressure from citizens’ groups to get the municipal administration to act.
The conference continues today at the Gelber Conference Centre, 5151 Côte Ste. Catherine Rd. For details, go to http://www.cremtl.qc.ca/SBM
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