"Nature Is Our Best Neighbour"

Conservation Council and partners celebrate new protected natural areas, push Minister to keep going on forestry reform

Conservation Council and partners celebrate new protected natural areas, push Minister to keep going on forestry reform

“Nature is our best neighbour— but we can’t go into its house and clearcut it and spray it and strip mine it,” our Executive Director, Lois Corbett, told reporters moments after the province unveiled the location of 90,000 hectares of new protected areas.

“We’ve got to shift, fundamentally, to understanding that nature will protect us when we protect it.”

It was just one interview the Conservation Council and our partners in nature protection gave about the long-awaited Nature Legacy announcement on Thursday, July 14, 2022 (see full coverage here).

Corbett and leaders from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-New Brunswick Chapter, Nature Trust of New Brunswick, Nature NB, the Fundy Region Biosphere and others were on hand as Natural Resources Minister Mike Holland made good headway on his government’s promise to double protected lands and waters in New Brunswick.

Update 2023: On track for 10 per cent, groups tell minister to aim even higher

The first protected areas designated under the Nature Legacy program—90,000 ha of newly protected lands plus an additional 10,000 ha New Brunswick says will soon be protected—raise New Brunswick’s natural protected area percentage to about 6% from 4.6% previously. Holland said his government would hit 10%, which would mean protecting an additional 300,000 ha, by the end of the year. Browse the map of the new Nature Legacy protected areas.

Increasing nature protection in New Brunswick is a long-standing conservation council campaign. Our former Executive Director Lois Corbett told reporters that protecting New Brunswick’s lands and waters should be a cornerstone of future policy—where the government requires modern, ecological practices from the forest industry and a comprehensive plan aimed at helping Canada reach its goal of 30 percent protection by 2030.

Since 2018, we have helped more than 2,500 citizens call for more protected areas. This resulted in the government launching a first-ever consultation process where citizens could help identify candidate areas for protection. We appreciate your help in making this historic increase to nature protection possible!

For more information, see the press release we released along with our allies on the new protected areas. This includes our call for true partnerships with Indigenous nations as the government protects an additional 300,000 ha and works toward 30 per cent protection by 2030.

Help us spread the word and celebrate this win for nature!

Let’s keep the momentum going. Help us celebrate this win for New Brunswick’s mixedwood Acadian Forest, the many animals and plants that call its land, rivers and wetlands home, and New Brunswickers who love to get out and about.

You can help right now by:

Sharing this post calling for more nature protection and ecological forestry in NB.
Sharing this post celebrating the new protected areas and the wildlife that will benefit from their protection.
Sharing this tweet about the Nature Legacy announcement.

You can also click on any of photos below to download them and post to your social media (be sure to tag us at @conservationcouncil on Facebook, @cc_nb on Twitter and @conservationcouncilnb on Instagram).