Feds announce $11M in conservation funds

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This article was published 18/07/2024 (663 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than $11 million in federal funding announced Thursday will go toward safeguarding areas across Manitoba that help keep carbon dioxide out of the air.

The federal Liberals have earmarked $6.1 million to compensate farmers and other private landowners across the province in exchange for signing agreements to not drain their wetlands, cultivate grasslands or cut down forests.

The project, led by the Manitoba Habitat Conservancy, involves nearly 3,000 acres of habitats crucial for mitigating climate change, including grasslands, wetlands and riparian areas. Most of the lands are in rural Manitoba.

“They essentially (will) pay farmers and others for conservation,” Terry Duguid, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister and special adviser for water, said.

Most of the land has already been identified, with large swaths north of Neepawa and in the Interlake area that haven’t received conservation support.

“It’s allowing us to work in areas where we traditionally haven’t in the past, but there’s really areas of high need,” Stephen Carlyle of the Manitoba Habitat Conservancy said.

“We’re really focusing on carbon-rich areas. So, where the carbon is in the soil, and we can really keep it there.”

Another $5.1 million will go specifically to conservation in Fisher River Cree Nation, to stop the conversion of land through peat harvesting, which releases carbon into the air.

Fisher River leadership have long expressed concern about the impact of harvesting peat, a natural resource made of organic matter, on Lake Winnipeg and moose and deer habitats.

It can also impact the harvesting of traditional medicines in the area.

“As Indigenous people, we are stewards of this land. We have a deep responsibility to protect and preserve our natural resources for future generations,” Fisher River Chief David Crate said in a statement.

“This funding will allow us to take meaningful action to safeguard our peatlands, which play a vital role in sequestering carbon and supporting the delicate ecosystems that our people have relied on for centuries.”

Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide.

The federal and provincial governments have committed to protecting 30 per cent of Canada’s lands and waters by 2030.

Both governments, along with the First Nations that sit on the Seal River Watershed in northern Manitoba, signed on in January to do a feasibility study on protecting the watershed by making it an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area and possibly a national park reserve.

The study is currently underway. Should the conservation effort succeed, Duguid said that project alone would put the province 16 per cent closer to its goal.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca