Quebec grants funding to the “Demain la forêt” project, launched in particular by the group Les Cowboys Fringants, in order to plant trees and create natural carbon sinks on agricultural land. A practice that would allow farmers to obtain carbon credits that they could eventually monetize.
The team of scientists and geomaticians who work with Jérôme Dupras, researcher and bassist of the Cowboys Fringants, was looking for spaces to plant trees in order to support the health of ecosystems and fight against climate change.
Agricultural land, estimated at 6.3 million hectares, or 5% of the area of Quebec, appeared as a opportunity for researchers.
” If we look at the history a little bit, a few decades ago it was grazing areas for dairy farms, animal farms, but there was a conversion of the territory, and today we mainly grow grain. “
Areas near watercourses where there are steep slopes, narrow places where agricultural machinery cannot circulate, soils that are too rocky, forest plots, areas left fallow where agriculture cannot is not possible are all places where trees can be planted to capture carbon and increase biodiversity.
But the members of the “Tomorrow the forest” project do not want to plant just any type of tree just anywhere and the $4.5 million in funding will be used to study the characteristics and behaviors of different trees and plants. on different soils and collect data. The goal is to maximize carbon capture, depending on the type of soil and vegetation.
To create a eco cookbook
Our project is a bit like creating a recipe book, because we don’t want to plant monoculture trees. We want to say to the farmer who would like to make a carbon sink: here is the best greening strategy to maximize carbonexplained Jérôme Dupras.
The professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Quebec in Outaouais and a researcher at the Institute of Temperate Forest Sciences wants to be able to create, within three years, an eco-friendly recipe book.
The farmer who plants plants on this land, in places where he cannot farm, will see his carbon capture efforts rewarded by the issuance of credits, which he can then sell to companies wishing to offset their broadcasts CO2.
The “Tomorrow the forest” project, which is overseen by Earth Day Canada, plans to plant 300,000 trees on various agricultural lands in the province.
The announcement, in which the Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Benoit Charette, and the Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne, took part, took place in Laval, in the forest of 50e.
This forest of 10,000 trees was created in 2015 by various organizations, including the Fondation des Cowboys Fringants, to mark the city’s 50th anniversary.
The place, which was once a dumping ground, now has five forest ecosystems, as well as an array of butterflies, birds, bumblebees, bees and other pollinating insects, according to the CANOPÉE team, l organization that manages this forest.
Regarding the pilot project, Minister Charette indicated that it will make it possible to study the possible contribution of various nature-based solutions to achieving the objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation to their impacts, in Quebec, and to determine which practices should be prioritized.
His colleague André Lamontagne added that the project is perfectly consistent with the efforts of the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation in the fight against climate change, in addition to being in harmony with the Sustainable Agriculture Plan 2020-2030, which aims to double the developed agricultural areas favorable to biodiversity.
The financial assistance comes from the implementation plan of the Plan for a Green Economy 2030.
The Canadian PressMartin Leclerc
Source: Radio-Canada
