Canada needs to get serious if it’s going to address the unprecedented threat to our way of life that is climate change. The least-expensive, simplest and quickest way would be to restore forested lands and coastal marine ecosystems so they sequester carbon.
Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea offer some of the easiest and best pickings to be had anywhere, and we’re long overdue. Promised and re-promised for 20 years, the need to mitigate our greenhouse-gas emissions might finally tip the scale in favour of a national marine conservation area for the southern Strait of Georgia.
Even former prime minister Stephen Harper, as recently as last August, promised us the economic boon and eco-tourism benefits of a south coast conservation area.
And with all the raw log exports sailing away to foreign ports, you can imagine how some concerted replanting and TLC in our backwoods might help rebalance bottom-line climate, economic and ecological accounts.
Since climate change came to the forefront, we’ve heard our political leaders remind us that the economy and the environment go hand in hand, that a balance is necessary to retain our way of life. Well, right here at home is the godsend of both — unequalled delivery of environmental health and the continuous wealth of sustainable development, rippling out and around the Gulf Islands and our inner strait.
If federal and provincial leaders are serious about their Paris Conference promises of last December, which they’ll shortly be deliberating in Vancouver, we should call on them to prove that commitment.
For starters, declare the southern Strait of Georgia National Marine Conservation Area. Let’s put simple, straightforward climate-change solutions first.
According to a recent article in the Washington Post, as much as a third of global climate emissions could be offset by stopping deforestation and restoring forest lands.
Similarly, research from Conservation International suggests the carbon contained in the seagrasses and kelp forests of our coasts, estuaries and tidal salt marshes directly compares with that sequestered in terrestrial ecosystems, including croplands.
We need to grasp the thistle, be a bit more modest about our dominion over everything and let nature help. If we’re serious about reducing our carbon footprint, the least disruptive, most beneficial solution would be to restore those ecosystems most likely to absorb carbon. Canada’s forests and ocean foreshores could take us a third of the way to our climate-change goals.
Big country that we are, with continent-spanning vision, we have the grand opportunity here and now to leave a legacy by which all future generations will measure us. Why not fast-track simple solutions across the country?
Designate one-third of our lands, forests and biologically diverse countryside as climate trusts. Provide incentives to landowners, set up reserves and covenants, nature trusts and agreements that will sequester carbon, mitigate the impacts of climate change and establish the foundation for our recovery.
Same for our coastal waters and marine habitat. Designate working areas and buffers for sustainable harvests so that conservation and climate reduction are guaranteed.
If nature has the means to absorb, transform and lock up greenhouse gases, so that our carbon footprint is reduced, why not let nature do the heavy lifting for us? Why not let nature reduce the threat of climate change?
What we do now will determine the earth’s future for millenia. Let’s take the high road, and be the leaders the world knows we can be. Let’s plant trees, log selectively and keep the need to reduce greenhouse gases front and centre. Let’s leave our carbon-sequestering marine habitats intact, act on those long-awaited promises and dare to ask nature for the help we need.
And while we’re asking, the southern Strait of Georgia conservation area would be a good start to get those economic and ecological benefits up and away for the West Coast, followed by national marine conservation areas on all our coasts. Breathing new life into our forests, right across the country, wouldn’t hurt either.
If Canada steps up to the plate and takes the decisive action, then we hewers of wood and drawers of water will become the honest brokers we aspire to be. If we live up to our promises, Canadians can be the movers and shakers of the 21st century.
Laurie Gourlay is president of the Vancouver Island and Coast Conservation Society.
