Lois Corbett calls on government to be strategic with plan to protect more Crown forest land

Our Executive Director, Lois Corbett, told reporters she’ll be watching closely to see if the provincial government gives proposed new conservation forest areas equal status in law as provincial protected areas and parks.

This week, the provincial government announced it will add new forest conservation areas as part of its long-awaited review of the controversial 2014 forestry agreement.

“The government needs to be strategic in defining what areas to conserve,” Corbett told Global News in an Aug. 14 interview. “What this should mean over the next 18 months is that the department identifies how to significantly increase buffer zones along our rivers and streams, how to protect wetlands in Crown forests, in order to get to that target.”

The government says it will add 150,000 hectares of new conservation forest — an area the size of seven Fundy National Parks.

While noting it’s a good start, Corbett told the Telegraph-Journal that “it’s probably not enough in this day and age of climate change and recurring floods. “The huge scientific community worldwide would go as far as saying we should set aside 50 per cent for nature, but that’s a bit of a hard swallow here in New Brunswick where so many of our small towns and communities depend on forest jobs.”

 

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