CPAWS welcomes agreement to expand public land base in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX – The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) welcomes today’s announcement by the Nova Scotia government that it will purchase significant land holdings from Resolute Forest Products in southwestern Nova Scotia.

“Nova Scotia has very little public land”, says Chris Miller, National Conservation Biologist for CPAWS, based in Halifax. “This agreement will go a long way toward protecting significant wilderness areas in southwestern Nova Scotia and help the province achieve its goal of protecting at least 12% of the provincial landmass over the next few years”.

Only about 30% of Nova Scotia is public land, the second lowest of any province in Canada.  Only Prince Edward Island has less public land.

According to documents released by the province, this agreement will see the government purchase $23.7 Million worth of private lands from the company.  Based on previous land purchases from forest companies, this should result in about 10,000 hectares of private land being purchased to add to the public land base.

“This is a win-win”, says Miller. “Hopefully it will help keep the mill open and, at the same time, Nova Scotia gets to expand its public land base and protect important tracts of wilderness”.

CPAWS has previously worked with Resolute Forest Products to evaluate their private land holdings for protected areas in Nova Scotia, as part of the Colin Stewart Forest Forum negotiations, which concluded in 2009.  The company has also voluntarily set aside a number of areas for conservation as part of its application for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

CPAWS will be working to ensure that the significant majority of land purchases made by the Nova Scotia government include properties of highest conservation value and will contribute to the provincial protected areas target.

Private lands owned by Resolute Forest Products in southwestern Nova Scotia contain rare species habitat, important wetlands, some old forest, and sites adjacent to existing protected areas.

Resolute Forest Products is one of the largest land holders in Nova Scotia

Contact:
Chris Miller, Ph.D.
National Conservation Biologist
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
cmiller@cpaws.org
902-446-4155