N.S. government announces more protected areas, strategy to reach 2030 target

After years of working toward his goal, Mike Lancaster had to pause to contemplate how it felt to see it achieved.

"I've spent countless hours — thousands of hours back there growing up in the area and then also doing scientific research back there. A lot of my life has been poured into this."

The place that's been so central for Lancaster is now known as the Island Lake Wilderness Area, almost 4,000 hectares of land, wetlands and water in the St. Margarets Bay area, about 30 minutes from downtown Halifax. The site is one of 23 new or expanded protected areas announced by the Nova Scotia government on Wednesday.

Mainland moose and other endangered species have been documented in Island Lake, which is also home to the oldest forest in the Maritimes, said Lancaster. He called the announcement "a tremendous victory for conservation" in the province.

Strategy for reaching 2030 protection goal released

The designation of the new protected land — about 14,000 hectares in total — means that 13 per cent of Nova Scotia's land and water is now protected. Environment Minister Tim Halman used Wednesday's announcement to also release his government's strategy for reaching the goal of protecting 20 per cent of the province's land and water by 2030.

The strategy includes identifying areas for protection to reach 15 per cent by 2026 and then the rest of the goal four years after that. Identifying and protecting that land will require consultation and collaboration, said Halman.

• Read the government's new protected areas strategy

And because only about a third of the province is Crown land, the minister said hitting the 2030 target is also going to require the inclusion of more private land.

"It's going to be a big component," he told reporters.

"We know in order to achieve that 20 per cent we have to engage with private landowners."

Halman said there is a precedent — when the government provided the Nova Scotia Nature Trust with $20 million to acquire land — but he acknowledged there's more work to do.

Liberal environment critic Iain Rankin said he thinks there will be interest from private landowners, but how much interest will come down to a key question.

"How much money [the government] is willing to provide so that landowners can look at the options of what's best for them," he told reporters.

'Time is running out'

Although he heralded the announcement about Island Lake, and the other areas protected when he was in government, Rankin said he's skeptical about the Tories reaching the 2030 target based on the rate of land they've managed to protect during their first two years in office.

"Time is running out," he said, noting that each percentage point of protected land represents about 50,000 hectares.

"I just don't see a way that they're going to find their way to 20 per cent unless we see some tangible progress in the next two years."

Lancaster is taking a more optimistic view.

With the strategy released and broad support from Mi'kmaw leadership, the tourism industry and other sectors for conservation, Lancaster said he anticipates an increase in the pace of protection by the government between now and 2030.