Understanding Climate-Smart Conservation: A Step Towards a Sustainable Future

Forest Nova Scotia believes the provincial government should embrace Climate-Smart Conservation. This call comes as the Province of Nova Scotia tries to achieve its goal of protecting and conserving at least 20 percent of Nova Scotia’s land and water by 2030.

Unless our provincial government is careful, achieving this target could put our province at risk. Without careful planning, we could see our forests emit more carbon dioxide as trees die from insect outbreaks, disease, windstorms and wildfires.

Currently, the only way for land to count as “protected” is to be owned by the government or through significant legal restrictions with some non-profit organizations. Many other pieces of land are privately held, where forestry activity cannot happen for various reasons, but these lands do not count toward provincial conservation targets.

The Current System is Broken

Based on the current system, this means there are two things the government can do.

1 | Spend Millions of Tax Dollars

Spend millions of your tax dollars to buy land and protect it. This would increase the total amount of Crown land and the total area of protected land.

It would also mean the government has less money to spend on essential things like health care and housing.

2 | Protect More Crown Land

There are two challenges with this approach.

Lost Revenue

Whenever trees are harvested on Crown land, the government earns revenue. This revenue funds important services, such as health care and education. If fewer trees are harvested on Crown land, it would mean less money for the government to spend on those critical services.

Big Problems With the Current Model

In Nova Scotia, there are two big problems with the current model used to protect land.

Increases Wildfire Risk

This last year saw record wildfires; experts say the future could be even worse. The future wildfire risk in Nova Scotia is heightened because the forests cannot be properly maintained under the current system.

When natural disasters like Hurricane Fiona hit, trees are knocked over. Right now, they are essentially being left to dry out and rot. Trees that are left to dry out add to the total amount of forest fire fuel in the province.

A January 2022 publication by the International Boreal Forest Researchers Association shows that active forest management in Nordic countries is helping sequester more carbon and making forests more resilient to wildfires. In those areas, fire and natural disturbance levels are 50 to 60 times lower than in Canada. This is even with harvesting rates higher than here in Canada.

Hastens Climate Change

We also see that protected areas cannot lock carbon away as effectively as growing forests. As trees become over-mature, they release carbon, especially as they become more vulnerable to insects, disease and wind.

A recent study by Parks Canada drives home this fact

“The effects of climate change — including the increased frequency and intensity of insect infestations and wildfires—are whittling away at the capacity of protected areas to store and sequester carbon.”

This means that increasing conservation will - for a brief period - protect the appearance of our forests. It also means that over time, Nova Scotia’s protected areas will move from a net carbon sink to an active carbon emitter.

The current model used for our province’s protected areas strategy hinders our forests’ ability to lock away carbon. Additionally, it puts lives at risk by increasing the risk of wildfires.

There is a solution: Climate-Smart Conservation.

Climate-Smart Conservation

Climate-Smart Conservation means we must start counting private land that is already protected. Large areas of private land cannot be forested for legislative or regulatory purposes. Failure to count this land will be expensive for taxpayers and our environment.

Climate-Smart Conservation would count the following:

• Include Moose Reserve Patches or Moose Shelter Patches already reserved from harvest on private land.

• Include wetlands and the riparian zones around wetlands where harvesting and other industrial activity do not occur.

• Include riparian areas around lakes and along larger watercourses.

• Voluntary conservation easements are offered to private landowners - they give a guarantee not to harvest or work the land.

This approach would let the province accurately count the amount of land already protected in the area. In doing so, we could avoid worsening climate change and increasing wildfire risk by protecting too much land.

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