CFB Shilo designated conservation area

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This article was published 07/03/2019 (2524 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government has turned to Manitoba’s army base in its quest to reach a global conservation quota, demonstrating Ottawa’s limited leverage in protecting wilderness.

On Thursday, Ottawa announced it was designating CFB Shilo a conservation zone. Under international agreements, the government must designate 17 per cent of the country’s land mass as conservation areas.

It’s the first time Canada has bestowed that designation on a military base; Ottawa usually picks parks and areas that are already protected.

“This is a great initiative,” said Eric Reder, a local campaigner with the Wilderness Committee charity.

Reder said a military base can be a smart way to designate protected land, as long as the land isn’t disturbed by more than just troops or light vehicles traversing the ground.

“If we’re talking about using it for a bombing range, this isn’t a way we could do it,” he said

Reder said the area around CFB Shilo and Spruce Woods Provincial Park is one of the few patches of hilly, sandy land “that didn’t get broken for farmland, like much of the Prairies was.”

Officials will have to make sure the base complies with rules set out by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The rules limit development and activity that can take place on designated land.

In 2010, Canada took part in a global agreement to conserve 17 per cent of terrestrial areas and inland water, as well as 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas by 2020. The idea is to sustain biodiversity, in part to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Reder said one the barriers to achieving that goal is the fact that Ottawa only controls small pieces of land, such as military bases.

“The provinces are the laggards here,” he said, explaining that they don’t like restrictions on development.

“Rural jobs are the thing that keeps protected areas from happening,” he said. “That’s why we’re getting this, on part of a military base.”

He pointed out that the Pallister government has declined to have 17 per cent of Manitoba become conservation land, despite the province having more wilderness than other regions.

In May 2018, Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires said “we are committed to working with a national goal of 17 per cent,” but clarified “it does not mean that Manitoba itself is committed to the 17 per cent.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca