Restoring Quebec鈥檚 landscapes for sustainability and resilience
In a new article for the 不良研究所 Reporter, Department of Natural Resource Sciences聽PhD Candidate聽Elson Ian Nyl Galang argues that to restore Quebec鈥檚 landscapes for sustainability and resilience, we need to carefully think about which pathways of development and decision-making we prioritize.
The Province of Quebec is home to landscapes that are essential for the well-being of human and non-human communities. Wetlands control floods, sequester carbon, and help ensure water quality in communities around them. Agricultural landscapes contain natural habitats that protect farmlands from soil erosion while serving as habitats for important pollinators. Greenspaces regulate temperatures in urban areas while providing recreational spaces for urban dwellers. These are just some of the many benefits that we can obtain from these landscapes.
However, historical and present-day challenges, such as pollution and rapid development, have caused a significant decline in the quality and extent of these landscapes.
Their sustainability is further threatened by emerging issues such as climate change, which is expected to intensify droughts, heatwaves, and storms, among many others. These landscapes must be protected, restored, or rehabilitated to ensure that they can continue providing benefits in the face of these issues.
With our team of researchers from 不良研究所鈥攊ncluding professors聽Elena Bennett,听Blane Harvey,听Gordon Hickey, and MSc candidate Catherine Destrempres鈥攁nd Universit茅 Laval, we collaboratively worked with several leaders and thinkers in the Province to co-imagine sustainable and resilient futures for the restoration and rehabilitation of Quebec鈥檚 wetlands, agricultural landscapes, and urban greenspaces. Our recently published聽聽presents the 12 co-imagined 鈥渟torylines of the future鈥� or scenarios that can inform us of the advantages and risks of particular future pathways to the restoration of these landscapes.
The report underscores the importance of paying attention to the kind of vision of development and decision-making we prioritize when planning for the restoration and rehabilitation of these landscapes.
Our report is just one of the key outputs from our research team at the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at 不良研究所 that explores the environmental futures of Canada鈥檚 important landscapes. We are part of NSERC ResNet, a pan-Canada research network that studies the management, modeling, and monitoring of these landscapes. Our work on Quebec鈥檚 landscapes was also done in partnership with the Qu茅bec Centre for Biodiversity Science (QCBS) Knowledge-to-Action Initiative.
We hope that our report can help research, practice, and governance of these landscapes for sustainability and resilience.