New Brunswickers United In Love For Nature and Its Protection

New poll shows New Brunswickers support nature protection, ecological forestry

The results are in and the conclusion irrefutable: New Brunswickers love their forests dearly and want to see them better protected.

This week the Conservation Council, Atlantic Salmon Federation and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-NB Chapter released a new poll showing 90 per cent of New Brunswickers surveyed want the provincial government to keep its promise to create new protected natural areas—a pledge now entering its second year overdue.

You can find the full poll results, conducted on our behalf by Oraclepoll Research in early February, here. Read our press release here: English | French 

Despite the delay from government to enact new protected areas, we are heartened by what we heard from New Brunswickers in this province-wide poll.

The results show beyond a shadow of a doubt that a love of nature and the demand to protect more of it unites all of our citizens.

Whether they live in a small, rural community, or a city, are young or elderly, are in a certain income bracket, have been here forever or have chosen to settle here, all New Brunswickers share a deep love and appreciate for nature and its protection.

Now, it’s time for government to listen, respect citizens’ wishes, and get on with the job.

Photo: Nick Hawkins

The Higgs government committed in 2019 to increase New Brunswick’s protected areas from 4.9 per cent to 10 per cent by the end of 2020. As it stands today, our province is among the worst in Canada on nature protection.

On top of wanting this overdue promise kept as quickly as possible, nearly eight in 10 New Brunswickers want the province to go even further, calling on our leaders to match Canada’s commitment of 25 per cent protected land by 2025.

Hundreds of New Brunswickers participated in the province’s public consultations to help identify potential sites for protection. The first 100,000 hectares slated for new protection have been identified, but government has missed its own deadline for enshrining their protection in law.

Lois Corbett, our Executive Director, says it’s embarrassing New Brunswick lags so far behind other provinces on nature protection and that it’s time for Minister Mike Holland to get the lead out.

“We are up against two crises: the climate crisis and the nature crisis—the rapid decline of plant and animals species in wild spaces. Put together, it’s quite scary,” Corbett says.

 “Every time large forestry companies clear cut, we lose habitat for birds, moose, deer, flying squirrels. Creating new protected natural areas, safeguarding moose and deer grounds—this will help our communities become more resilient in the face of climate change impacts and better protect species in decline.”

The survey also shows that a majority of New Brunswickers—75 per cent—support reviewing the Crown Lands and Forests Act to establish a new management system based on ecological forestry. Ecological forestry strikes a better, fairer balance between the needs of industry, private woodlot owners and First Nations, habitat protection, and recreational forest uses such as hiking, canoeing, hunting and fishing.

Only 34 per cent of New Brunswickers are in favour or current industrial forestry management practices.

“We are one of the most rural provinces in Canada and New Brunswickers are confronted everyday with the reality of our current industrial forest practices,” Corbett says. 

The poll also revealed some findings that likely won’t surprise Conservation Council supports: citizens identified logging, clearcutting and a lack of protected areas as their greatest concerns about the state of our forest. When asked what they thought has held government back from keeping its promise to date, the top answers were the influence of large forestry companies and a lack of political will from our leaders.

Hungry for more data? Click here to see how our February 2022 poll results compare with similar polling we commissioned in the fall of 2020.

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