Increasing the effectiveness of conservation targets across the Montreal Metropolitan Community
The protection of natural environments is an important issue in the Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) where less than 25% of the total area remains natural and only ~10% of the territory is protected (including 3% of terrestrial environments). In collaboration with the Quebec division of the World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF-Canada), Habitat was commissioned to evaluate the impacts of different targets and scenarios for protecting and restoring nature in the MMC. The analysis is based on a set of criteria: biodiversity, species at risk, adaptation to the climate crisis, restoration potential and susceptibility to development, and ecological connectivity and maintenance of hydrological functions.
Based on this study, we have provided recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of conservation targets so that natural environments can continue to provide ecosystem services, maintain landscape connectivity and support vulnerable and threatened species.
Our analyses demonstrate that more ambitious conservation targets are needed to protect the MWC's terrestrial natural environments. Our report offers optimized science-based multi-criteria solutions for identifying natural environments for conservation. This approach allows us to contrast the consequences of conservation scenarios on ecosystem service retention, biodiversity, and ecological connectivity to inform decision-making.
Browse the interactive map to find protected areas near you and priority restoration sites!
Note: The estimate of protected and unprotected areas is based on data from the Registre des Aires Protégées du Québec (RAPQ) available at Données Québec: https://www.donneesquebec.ca
Main findings
Forests in the MWC have low functional diversity, but store a large amount of carbon in their aboveground biomass.
Subsurface carbon accounts for 80% of total carbon storage in the MWC, and wetlands are the most important subsurface carbon sinks.
Many brownfields in the northern and southern rings of the MWC represent potential restoration sites, however these areas are also the most susceptible to development.
The MWC's natural environments contribute significantly to local and regional ecosystem connectivity: 12% of natural environments are critical to regional connectivity and about a quarter are critical at the local scale.
More ambitious conservation goals of 15 or 20% at the MWC scale (=conserve 60-80% of the remaining natural environments) would increase the overall conservation value retained in the MWC.
Press release
Montreal - October 12, 2021 - While only 3% of the natural terrestrial environments of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) are officially protected, the study co-led by professors Jérôme Dupras and Christian Messier of UQO and Andrew Gonzalez of McGill, has identified more than 11,000 potential sites for ecological restoration through reforestation.
