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THE GLOBE & MAIL
Billion-dollar
plan quietly mapped out to save wilderness
By ALANNA
MITCHELL
EARTH SCIENCES REPORTER; With a report
from Kim Lunman in Ottawa
Friday, October 4, 2002 – Print
Edition, Page A9
Lurking behind Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's
announcement yesterday that he will complete the national parks system
is a top-secret, billion-dollar plan that would protect even more of
Canada's wilderness.
Its code name is the Four
Amigos. The first step toward this dream
fund may be a promise in the February budget, Canadian Heritage Minister
Sheila Copps says.
The ambitious plan, devised by four
private conservation groups, would see the federal government give
$250-million and the groups raise $750-million more. They would use the
$1-billion fund to obtain and protect land now beyond Ottawa's reach.
"It's a huge solution," Ms.
Copps said in an interview yesterday.
She added that the federal government
takes the Four Amigos
plan so seriously that it almost put together a whack of money for it
during the last budget, only to have plans derailed after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
This year, the government's goal is to
add another $75-million in core funding to the parks budget for the
expansion Mr. Chrétien announced yesterday. The second step in
government support for the fund would be a possible year-end
contribution, Ms. Copps said.
The mysterious Four
Amigos plan is the brainchild of the
four most influential, least radical conservation organizations in
Canada: the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the World Wildlife Fund of
Canada, the Canadian Nature Federation and Ducks Unlimited.
Together, these four (hence the name)
have proposed to the Prime Minister that he ante up $50-million a year
for five years -- $250 million -- to save much of the last remaining
wilderness in Canada, and to start on protecting more marine areas.
That new money for wilderness does not
now exist in the budget.
The deal is that the Four
Amigos would use that seed money as
leverage to raise another $750-million over the five years through their
powerful fundraising networks, for a total of $1-billion, Monte Hummel,
president of the WWF, said yesterday.
In addition, the groups would use their
influence to secure lands the government would not be able to get. These
could include lands abutting existing parks, creating a buffer for
wildlife around the parks.
Some of this conservation superfund could
help put together the very parks the Prime Minister announced yesterday,
Mr. Hummel said.
"If we really went at this over the
next five or 10 years, we could accomplish something no other country in
the world could claim in terms of the natural legacy," said John
Lounds, president of the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
In all, Mr. Chrétien vowed yesterday to
increase the terrestrial parks to 49 from the current 39, and to
establish five new marine conservation areas over the next five years.
He made it clear that the announcement is dear to his heart.
"Today, we hit the ground
running," Mr. Chrétien said. "It is the most ambitious plan
to expand and protect national parks and national conservation areas in
over 100 years. It will protect over 100,000 square kilometers of
wilderness, the size of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined."
Mr. Hummel said that the Four
Amigos fund could go much further,
establishing another 50 protected land areas plus about 25 new marine
protected areas.
"We're prepared to work like hell
and raise money from our supporters," he said.
If the Four
Amigos deal flies, it would establish a
new way of creating protected areas. Until now, it has been up to
governments -- both federal and provincial -- to carry the financial
load of assembling the lands and liberating mineral rights to create
protected areas.
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