Proposed Anticosti biodiversity reserve
As part of the preparation of Anticosti's candidacy for nomination on the UNESCO World Heritage List, a new protected area has been created on its territory.
A new biodiversity reserve
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Anticosti is a territory with unique landscapes, which conceals in its soil important elements about the history of the earth (stratigraphy) and the testimony of life (paleontology).
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Part of its territory is protected and conserved by a network of protected areas. It includes the Grand-Lac-Salé, Pointe-Heath and Pointe Est ecological reserves, the Anticosti National Park and the Proposed Anticosti biodiversity reserve.
THE MAP AND THE REGULATIONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF FOSSILS
DETAILED MAP OF THE PROPOSED ANTICOSTI BIODIVERSITY RESERVE
In 2020, the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) created the Proposed Anticosti biodiversity reserve . The purpose of this reserve is to promote the protection and conservation of the biological diversity and the natural and cultural resources associated with Anticosti Island, especially the protection of elements representative of the geodiversity of the island territory having an exceptional universal value.
It thus aims to enable the nomination of Anticosti Island as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in particular by proposing a conservation plan that establishes the conservation objectives, the activities prohibited or subject to authorization as well as the zoning of the protected area. A management team will be gradually put in place by the MELCC and will assume responsibility for the protection and management of the site.
In December 2017, the Government of Canada included Anticosti on the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Canada, a preliminary step for this international recognition.
The Anticosti nomination was submitted by the end of 2021 to the World Heritage Center. It was then received by the World Heritage Committee in February 2022 and evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which will issue a recommendation. A decision on the registration request will probably be known no later than the summer of 2023.
Additional information about Anticosti's nomination
With the participation of :
Nomination coordination team
André Desrochers, researcher at the University of Ottawa and scientific director of the steering committee for the Anticosti World Heritage listing, is a recognized expert in sedimentary geology.
He fell in love with Anticosti Island following a summer job as a geologist's assistant in 1977 and returned there many times; including for his honeymoon. He works with many collaborators to understand the first great crisis of mass extinction of life on Earth as recorded in the fossiliferous strata of Anticosti Island, which date back more than 435 million years. Anticosti is recognized worldwide for having the richest and most diverse fossil invertebrate assemblages spanning the end of the Ordovician and the beginning of the Silurian.
Katie Gagnon is a political scientist, specialist in democracy and citizen participation. She is the development and consultation coordinator for Anticosti's application for UNESCO World Heritage status.
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Katie has worked for the UNESCO Regional Office in Moscow, as a coordinator for World Heritage files and as a consultant for relations with civil society. She has more than fifteen years of experience in coordinating and managing projects with multiple partners at the regional, provincial and international levels and has a solid knowledge of the regions of Quebec, particularly those far from major urban centres.
Discovering the island and its inhabitants
In love with the northern territory and its inhabitants, Katie was also interested in the place of women in the municipality of Anticosti during her first stay on the island. Passionate about hiking, she then contributed in the field for a few years to the creation of the island's hiking trail.