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Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000
From: Iain Taylor <mapman@hfx.andara.com>
I have just spoken with the Minister's assistant about this and she assures
me that "all the calls are being carefully considered and a decision as to
whether to hold another forum in the Hfx. area will likely be known in the
next week".
So the pressure may be working!
Iain Taylor
FPPP
> Telephone DNR Minister Ernie Fage's office (424-4037). Ask for his
> personal assistant. Tell her/him about your disappointment with the DNR
> Info Session in Lower Sackville. Tell he/him you were appalled by the
> 'info session' and that you have heard there will be another meeting in
> Halifax soon and where will it be and when? If more people phone, it
> will even be more successful. You might be refferred to the PR officer
> for DNR Halifax, a Ms. Susan Mader Zinc (424-2354).
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000
From: "Brian C. Bradley" <ax876@chebucto.ns.ca>
I am very interested in obtaining some actual references/facts to the
suggestion that DNR has previously subsidized the sales of
pesticides/herbicides/etc. to the companies which apply these chemical
neurotoxins and carcinogens. Can anyone point to or provide a source for
this? Thank you.
Brian Bradley
home page: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ax876
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2000
From: Anna McCarron <amcarron@istar.ca>
>September 19, 2000
>Dear Colleague,
>
>Re: Letter from the scientists regarding Nova Scotia Department
>of Natural Resources' (DNR) Integrated Resource Management plan
>
>To sign-on, please send a return e-mail message to Karen Beazley at
><karen.beazley@dal.ca>
>indicating your name, degree/ title, and address
>or affiliation.
>
>Attached please find documents related to the Nova Scotia Department
>of Natural Resources' (DNR) Integrated Resource Management (IRM)
>plan. The first is a proposed statement of concern from Nova
>Scotia's scientific community. This statement will be forwarded to
>Premier John Hamm and other government officials when we have
>collected the names of those willing to sign-on. We would like to
>offer you, as a scientist, this opportunity to sign on (name, title,
>mailing address). The second section is a background piece outlining
>the political and ecological context of the IRM plan.
>
>This document is being circulated to several listservers, all of
>which contatin members who are not scientists. We are asking that you
>utilize your own discretion in deciding whether you are a scientist
>or not. We also ask that you forward this message to other scientists
>or other listservers, so that the message gets spread to as much of
>Nova Scotia's scientific community as possible.
>
>To sign-on, please send a return e-mail message to Karen Beazley at
>karen.beazley@dal.ca
>indicating your name, degree/ title, and address or affiliation.
>
>We also encourage you to send a letter of your own to Premier John Hamm
>expressing your views.
>
>As you may know, the IRM plan will dictate
>long-term management objectives and activity on over one million
>hectares of Crown land. This is an important process!
>
>Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please respond ASAP.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D.
>
>Martin Willison, Ph.D.
>-------
>19 September, 2000
>
>The Honourable John Hamm
>Premier of Nova Scotia
>PO Box 726
>1700 Granville St.
>Halifax, NS B3J 2T3
>
>Re: Statement of concern from scientists on biodiversity protection and
>Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) Integrated
>Resource Management (IRM) process
>
>Dear Hon., Dr. Hamm:
>
>WHEREAS preserving earth's biodiversity, upon which the future of
>humankind and all life on the planet rests, will be humanity's greatest
>challenge of the 21st century;
>
>WHEREAS the Nova Scotia government has not yet lived up fully to various
>political and legal commitments to protect biodiversity;
>
>WHEREAS wild areas protected from development prevent the loss,
>fragmentation, and degradation of natural habitat, which is the leading
>cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss;
>
>WHEREAS wild areas provide free ecological services vital to the
>survival and well-being of humankind including the preservation of clean
>air, water, and soil, and the regulation of hydrological, nutrient and
>climatic cycles;
>
>WHEREAS Nova Scotia's existing protected areas are too small, too few,
>and too isolated to accommodate natural ecological and evolutionary
>processes, including migration and recruitment;
>
>WHEREAS current extractive land use practices on Crown lands are
>incompatible with the protection of biodiversity;
>
>WHEREAS the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources was given
>responsibility in 1994 to complete a long-term land use plan for over
>one million hectares of Crown land, called the Integrated Resource
>Management (IRM) Plan; and
>
>WHEREAS the current IRM Plan fails to provide a credible framework for
>biodiversity protection in Nova Scotia;
>
>BE IT RESOLVED THAT
>
>We, the undersigned members of Nova Scotia's scientific community call
>on the Provincial government to develop and implement a comprehensive
>biodiversity conservation plan based in modern conservation science.
>
>Accordingly, we call on the Government of Nova Scotia to:
>
>* complete, as promised, a network of protected areas representing all
>of the province's natural landscape types;
>
>* recognize that the completion of a responsible protected areas network
>requires many additional large protected areas on Crown lands;
>
>* acknowledge that the current management and regulatory framework for
>extractive land use practices on Crown lands needs major overhauling in
>order to reflect conservation science and protect biodiversity;
>
>* initiate immediately a comprehensive scientific analysis to identify
>additional protected areas, significant or sensitive habitats and
>ecological areas, and buffer areas and corridors;
>
>* declare a moratorium on new road and other developments within
>significant natural areas identified by the Department of Environment
>and others and remaining roadless tracts of Crown land greater than 200
>hectares until such time as a scientifically-defensible,
>ecologically-sustainable, long-term land management plan is completed;
>and
>
>* revise the IRM Plan in accordance with the above, and develop a
>program of effective incentives for biodiversity conservation on private
>lands, paying special attention to those natural landscape regions in
>which there is little Crown land.
>
>It is our opinion that to do anything less will lead to further loss of
>plant and wildlife species and habitat, landscape diversity, and quality
>of life for Nova Scotians. Please let us know at your earliest
>convenience how you intend to address this urgent matter.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, School for Resource and
>Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. B3H 3J5
>
>Martin Willison, Ph.D. Professor, Biology Dept. and School for Resource
>and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S. B3H 3J5
>------------
>Background
>
>The Integrated Resource Management Process and Conservation Science:
>Political Commitments and Ecological Perspective
>
>18 September, 2000
>
>Several agreements commit the Government of Nova Scotia to develop a
>long-range plan to protect biodiversity and provide for the sustainable
>use of natural resources in the Province. While some important progress
>has been made on fulfilling these commitments, serious shortcomings
>exist. The provincial Integrated Resource Management (IRM) planning
>process should be a vehicle for fulfilling biodiversity commitments.
>Unfortunately, the proposed IRM plan protects far too little Crown land
>and fails to adequately address impacts from extractive uses such as
>logging and mining.
>
>A Statement of Commitment to complete Canada's Networks of Protected
>Areas, also known as the Tri-Council Agreement (1992), is a public
>statement of political will to complete Canada's networks of protected
>natural areas by the year 2000 and identify and protect critical
>wildlife habitat. It is endorsed by the Canadian Council of Ministers
>of the Environment, the Canadian Parks Ministers' Council, and the
>Wildlife Ministers' Council of Canada (1991).
>
>The Canadian Biodiversity Strategy is a response to obligations in the
>Green Plan (1990) and as a signatory to the International Convention on
>Biological Diversity. A goal of the strategy is to conserve
>biodiversity through the maintenance of viable populations of native
>species, completion of networks of protected areas, restoration and
>rehabilitation, and maintenance of connectivity among habitat in the
>broader landscape.
>
>The Sustainable Development Strategy for Nova Scotia (1992) calls for
>the protection of 12 percent of the land and water base. A Proposed
>Systems Plan for parks and protected Areas in Nova Scotia calls for
>representation of all 80 natural landscape types and the maintenance of
>biological diversity through broader landscape planning and management.
>The systems plan also includes proposed future actions toward protecting
>International Biological Program sites and other significant areas as
>ecological reserves under the Special Places Protection Act (1989). Gap
>analysis to identify unrepresented or under-represented natural
>landscape types is described. This plan was widely endorsed by the
>citizens of Nova Scotia through the 26 public meetings and many written
>comments.
>
>The Wilderness Areas Protection Act (1997) explicitly lists the
>maintenance of biodiversity and the integrity of natural processes as
>its first objective. Further, industry-related documents such as the
>National Forest Strategy (1997) and Whitehorse Mining Initiative (1994)
>recognize the commitment to protect biodiversity, including the
>protection of critical wildlife habitat. The Province has also
>implemented An Act Respecting Endangered Species, Bill No. 51 (1996),
>and federal Species at Risk legislation is pending.
>
>The government of Nova Scotia has the responsibility to fulfill its
>obligations and commitments to protecting biodiversity, endangered
>species, and natural landscape representivity. The greatest threat to
>biodiversity is the loss, conversion, degradation and fragmentation of
>habitat.
>
>After having selected 31 areas of provincial Crown land for protection
>under its Wilderness Areas Act, the provincial Department of Natural
>Resources (DNR) began a planning process, called Integrated Resource
>Management (IRM). The goal of this exercise is to examine resource
>conflicts and determine long-term land-use objectives on over one
>million hectares of Crown land. Many areas which had been considered
>for protection as wilderness areas within the protected areas system
>planning process were rejected because of resource commitments. For
>this reason, the IRM planning process was to include the possibility of
>additional protection of wilderness areas in a planning category called
>"C3" or "Protected and Limited Use Areas." Other Crown lands are
>classified under IRM as either "C1" ("General Resource Use Areas"), or
>"C2" ("Multiple and Adaptive Use Areas"). C1 areas are deemed by the
>DNR to have a low level of "resource conflicts," and the full range of
>land uses (i.e., logging and mining) will be allowed. C2 areas are
>deemed to have a higher level of conflict and certain land uses may be
>limited or modified.
>
>Very little, if any, additional Crown land has been recommended for
>protection in the IRM process; in fact, some Crown lands which had
>previously been designated as park reserves have had protection
>stripped, and almost no lands which had been previously identified as
>having significant natural values have been classified as C3.
>
>Even though the IRM document, Managing Natural Resources on Crown Land
>(1997), acknowledges the need to base planning on ecological units to
>"facilitate such principles as sustainable resources use and maintenance
>of biodiversity," the current IRM plan, will not protect biodiversity in
>Nova Scotia. By way of example, the DNR's Long Range Management Plan
>for Crown land in the Stanley area demonstrates the flaws in the IRM
>process.
>
>The Long Range Management Plan map for the Stanley block, one of the
>larger areas of contiguous Crown land in Central Nova Scotia, shows an
>area heavily dedicated to logging, with not a single protected area.
>Indeed, not an acre of the natural landscape type represented here
>(Central Clay Plains) is protected. Continuation of other private
>industrial activities, such as peat moss extraction, and possible
>commercial blueberry harvest, are also likely under this plan.
>
>Only 8% of the Stanley block is designated as old forest area, which is
>far too little to support old growth dependent species, even if these
>areas were connected via corridors. This is not a plan conducive to
>ecological and biological recovery from decades of abuse, which is
>required in this area of Nova Scotia (for example, the plan does not
>consider lynx, pine marten and moose which have been extirpated from
>this area). On the contrary, the plan demonstrates that the IRM vision
>is one of continued over-exploitation, conversion, fragmentation and
>degradation of the natural landscape.
>
>Protected areas and other areas managed for biodiversity objectives are
>necessary for the maintenance of genetic, population, species, and
>community diversity. In order for natural processes such as speciation
>and evolution to continue, areas of habitat protection must be large
>enough to maintain ecological integrity. It is important that there be
>adequate connectivity among protected areas to allow for the migration
>and recruitment of species over the landscape. It is paramount that
>protected areas of habitat do not become islands where species are
>isolated, as this assures or greatly increases the chances of extinction
>over time.
>
>Enough area needs to be protected or managed for biodiversity objectives
>to represent all natural landscape types and maintain ecological
>integrity. Ecological integrity requires maintenance of: natural
>processes such as succession, water and nutrient cycling, and carbon
>sequestration; viable populations of the full compliment of native
>species; and compatible human uses. Viable populations of native
>species require a minimum critical amount and quality of habitat area.
>These areas must be determined, identified and taken into account in all
>land management planning decisions. The onus should be on government
>and industry to prove that the cumulative effects of incremental land
>use activities are not threatening populations of native species and
>other critical life-supporting ecological processes.
>
>These objectives cannot be achieved within Nova Scotia's current 31
>Wilderness Areas alone. These areas are too few, too small, and too
>isolated from one another to sustain biodiversity. Currently, only 23
>of the 80 natural landscape types are considered to be "satisfactorily"
>represented in existing National and Provincial Parks and Wilderness
>Areas using the DNR's own criteria. Even the landscape types considered
>satisfactorily represented, where "satisfactorily" means 12% is
>protected, do not capture the full spectrum of biodiversity within these
>areas.
>
>The Province also needs initiatives to facilitate the protection of
>private lands, with special attention paid to natural landscape regions
>in which there is little Crown land. Such measures could include tax
>incentives for conservation easements and revision of the Municipal
>Planning Act to encourage protection of a planned system of natural
>lands. Given that almost 70% of Nova Scotia is privately owned, private
>land conservation is vital to biodiversity and natural landscape
>protection.
>
>The implications of impending climate change for many species may be
>severe. It is essential that adequate habitat be protected to allow for
>varied responses to future changes in the temperature and moisture
>regimes, such as opportunities for species migration and dispersal.
>This again requires large, connected areas of protected habitat, as well
>as the protection of the full range of all natural landscape types.
>Further, maintaining areas of forest and other natural cover will help
>buffer the impacts of climate change through carbon sequestration and
>filtering. In light of the inadequate understanding of how species do,
>and will, respond to environmental changes, a precautionary and prudent
>approach is necessary.
>
>Significant new protected areas (C3 lands) must be included in the IRM
>plan. Additionally, biodiversity objectives and criteria must be more
>meaningfully incorporated into the management of C1 and C2 lands.
>Biodiversity objectives and maintenance of ecological integrity should
>be the fundamental underlying criteria for planning and management
>decisions on all Crown lands. The products and processes of evolution
>represent the life-support system of humankind and all species, and are
>the foundation of all social and economic systems.
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D.
>
>Martin Willison, Ph.D.
>
>
>
>
>Karen Beazley, Ph.D.
>Assistant Professor
>School for Resource and Environmental Studies
>Dalhousie University
>Halifax, N.S.
>B3H 3J5
>
>
>Telephone: (902) 494-1383
>Fax: (902) 494-3728
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