PHOTO: Seemingly endless wetlands of the Saskatchewan River Delta

Premier Selinger earns praise for new parks, but deficiency in protected-areas strategy becomes obvious

The Wilderness Committee congratulates Premier Selinger for protecting more of Manitoba with the creation of two vast northern provincial parks. However, protecting lands that are out of reach of most Manitobans and not at risk indicates the government is still not willing enough to do the hard work necessary to protect Manitoba’s varied natural heritage.

“The new protected land is valuable to all Manitobans, and the work the Northlands Denesuline First Nation and Sayisi Dene First Nation have done to protect their traditional territories is appreciated,” said Eric Reder, Campaign Director for the Wilderness Committee. “The down side is that our government is clearly not doing the hard work to protect our at-risk southern ecosystems.”

The Wilderness Committee likens this protected areas announcement, along with the establishment of new northern parks last fall, to the schemes in British Columbia in the 1990s. The B.C. government started protecting mountain-top rock, ice, and high-alpine forests--areas of lower biological diversity--until they’d surpassed the then-accepted 12% protection mark, but still permitting logging in many of the rich river valleys.

The government’s Protected Areas Initiative Natural Region Representation 2007 map and Manitoba’s Protected Areas Initiative Priority Areas map (April 2007), both of which are available online, demonstrate the points the Wilderness Committee have been raising over the last year. The regions that need more work are in southern and central Manitoba, and the government is not showing progress in these areas.

“Where are the new protected areas for the forests of the Interlake area, or some of the lands around the upper Whitemouth River? How about the Saskatchewan River Delta? Where’s the protection for the woodland caribou habitat north of The Pas?” asked Reder.

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