MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES & NATURE CONSERVANCY OF CANADA PARTNERSHIP

For Immediate Release
November 22, 2006

MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES & NATURE CONSERVANCY OF CANADA PARTNERSHIP
Backgrounder

The partnership between Ministry of Natural Resources and Nature Conservancy of Canada

The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) have signed a new five-year agreement to secure ecologically sensitive private lands in Ontario. Under the agreement, MNR will contribute $3.1 million in the first year and NCC will at least match the MNR contribution.

The NCC and the ministry have long recognized the complementary nature of their work. The ministry is the steward of Ontario’s provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates, and the Crown lands and waters that make up 87 per cent of the province. The Nature Conservancy of Canada is a national non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the protection of ecologically significant land through private action and to its long-term stewardship through monitoring and management plans and agreements. Since it was established in 1962, NCC has helped to conserve more than 1.9 million acres of ecologically significant land across Canada, including 115,000 acres in Ontario.

Over the past decade, combining MNR’s stewardship mandate with NCC’s science, securement and management expertise has resulted in the efficient and effective identification, securement and stewardship of more than 50,000 acres of ecologically significant lands and waters in Ontario – an area bigger than Killarney Provincial Park.

Protecting natural heritage lands in Ontario

Ontario is the most naturally diverse province in Canada, with 3,000 native plant species, 450 species of birds and 130 species of native butterflies. Much of this biodiversity is found in heavily populated southern Ontario. More than 80 per cent of the woodlands and 75 per cent of the wetlands in southern Ontario have been lost since European settlement began. As a result, Ontario is also home to more endangered species than anywhere else in Canada.

Ontarians depend on a biologically diverse environment for clean air and water, and an abundance of wildlife. We also depend on our natural resources to sustain the economic and community benefits from forestry, farming, fishing and recreation. To protect Ontario’s biodiversity, a full range of the province’s ecosystems and natural features must be identified and conserved.

Deciding which properties to secure

NCC and MNR work together to ensure that the most ecologically important lands are protected. Using the best available science, NCC and MNR biologists and ecologists select the natural areas and habitat types most in need of protection.

In 2005, NCC and MNR completed the four-volume Great Lakes Conservation Blueprint for Biodiversity – a tool that maps and analyzes the available information on the biological diversity of the Great Lakes Basin. The project is the first-ever GIS-based landscape-level analysis of terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity in the Great Lakes region.

MNR/NCC history of cooperation

Previous MNR/NCC programs have included:

• The Greenlands Program: The 2004 program focused on acquiring privately owned, environmentally significant lands in areas such as the Oak Ridges Moraine, the Niagara Escarpment and the Alfred Bog. The program has resulted in the purchase of 4,290 acres of land valued at more than $7 million. MNR contributed $3.7 million to the program, while NCC raised contributions of $1.3 million. The remaining funds have come from a variety of local partners, including conservation authorities, municipalities and private sources.

  Acquisitions under the Greenlands Program include lands in the Happy Valley Forest, the Luther Marsh, the Niagara Escarpment, the Wagosh Bay Dunes, the Alfred Bog, the Stone Road Alvar, and along the Credit River and in the Alton Wetland Complex.

• The Ontario Parks/Nature Conservancy of Canada Legacy Program: Begun as a five-year agreement that aimed to help complete Ontario’s system of parks and protected areas, the program has run for 10 years and resulted in 36,000 acres of land valued at more than $25 million being secured through purchases, donations or conservation easements. NCC raised $17.9 million to contribute to the program, while MNR contributed $7.7 million.

  Acquisitions under the Ontario Parks/NCC Legacy Program include lands in the Alfred Bog and the Burnt Lands Alvar, the Bickford Oak Woods, Strawberry Island, the Rice Lake Plains, the Clear Creek Forest and the Carden Alvar.

• The Eastern Habitat Joint Venture (EHJV) Program: Since 1989, MNR, NCC and other EHJV partners have worked together to secure the province’s significant wetlands and associated habitats that support migratory birds from across North America. Through the program, NCC has secured 19,300 acres of land valued at $14.1 million. MNR contributed $2.5 million, which NCC leveraged to raise $11.6 million, including funds from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and other U.S. non-federal sources; other Canadian partners, including Environment Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada and Wildlife Habitat Canada; and private donors.

MNR’s commitment

The ministry is committed to the conservation of biodiversity and the use of natural resources in a sustainable manner. This includes protecting species at risk; managing invasive species; mitigating the impacts of climate change; acquiring, protecting and managing natural heritage areas over the long term; and encouraging citizens to conserve and manage natural areas and resources.

As well as partnering with NCC and other organizations to protect and manage natural areas, MNR led the development of Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy, is reviewing and updating species-at-risk legislation, led the development of a five-year EHJV implementation plan to conserve wetlands and associated species, and has launched the Natural Spaces program to encourage private land stewardship across southern Ontario.

NCC’s commitment

Since 1962, NCC has been committed to the protection of Canada’s natural heritage for future generations. It works directly with landowners to secure ecologically significant areas through purchase, donation or the implementation of conservation agreements. Over the past five years, NCC has also been working to complete a series of Conservation Blueprints for each of Canada’s southern ecoregions that identify the highest-priority areas for conservation, and guide its securement activities.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada:

• is guided by the best available conservation science
• works in a non-confrontational manner
• manages lands and waters for their intrinsic, natural values and biodiversity targets
• respects and promotes nature’s own processes of growth, succession and interaction, and
• recognizes the need to create avenues for people to sustain themselves and live productively while conserving biological diversity.

Related Information

• News Release: ONTARIO GOVERNMENT AND NATURE CONSERVANCY OF CANADA RENEW CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIP

For More Information

Julie Simard
Land Management Section
Ministry of Natural Resources
705-755-5123

Laura Mousseau
Public Affairs Officer, Ontario Region
Nature Conservancy of Canada
1-877-343-3532, Ext. 235

General Enquiries

Natural Resources Information Centre
1-800-667-1940
TTY 1-866-686-6072 (Hearing Impaired)