Protected Areas - Methodology
The lack of precision with respect to protected areas or other complementary private land conservation measures is due to several factors:
- Geographic location using dated system or inaccurate scale;
- Lack of knowledge of exact shape of the property;
- Incomplete knowledge of current conservation mechanisms.
New information has to be collected in order to validate and update inaccuracies. However, considering that the federal and provincial governments have performant geographic information systems with various information layers, data collection has to be limited to what cannot be extracted from these systems.
This initiative deals only with private land; all related information has to be documented in the Registre foncier du Québec(Quebec Registry). Exploiting the Registry’s data using geographic information systems is currently difficult, so are requests to databases.
It that context, it has been decided to use only protected areas and other additional conservation measures having a polygon that can be exploited using geographic information systems. Descriptive data associated to shapes help access additional information directly from the Quebec Registry or from other stakeholders.
For protected areas purposes, the SLAP territory is defined as:
All natural provinces named « St. Lawrence Lowlands (B) » and « Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence (X) » according to Cadre écologique de référence du Québec 
(MDDELCC). On the « Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence (X) » territory, the boundary should be moved 1 km inland from the shore line obtained from the Quebec topographical database (BDTQ), scale 1:20000. Also included are the Outaouais River, the St. Lawrence River, Estuary and Gulf as well as the bays, coastal zone, shelves and other shoals.
It was necessary to properly define the notions of protected area and other conservation measures.
Protected area:
An area, geographically defined, whose administrative and jurisdictional1
frameworks specifically ensure the protection and maintenance of biological diversity2 and associated natural and cultural resources.
Other complementary conservation measure :
An area geographically defined recognized, dedicated and managed, through effective legal means3 or other for long-term protection and maintenance of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural resources.
The collected information is presented as follows:
| Original Value Type of Protection | Grouping Value | Acronym |
|---|---|---|
| Habitat of at risk or endangered species (Flora) Recognised natural reserve Man-made landscape projected Man-made landscape | Conservation measure (CM) or protected area (PA) established according to provincial laws of the Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MDDELCC) | CM / PA by MDDELCC laws |
| Fauna refuge | Conservation measure (CM) or protected area (PA) established according to provincial laws of the Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (MFFP) | CM / PA by MFFP laws |
| Migrating birds refuge | Conservation measure (CM) or protected area (PA) established according to federal laws of the Department of Environment and Climate Change (ECCC) | CM / PA by EC laws |
| Dependence for conservation purposes Conservation trust Written conservation agreements Conservation lease Conservation obligation Personal rights for conservation purposes Management contracts written for conservation purposes | Conservation measure (CM) or protected area (PA) established according to Quebec Civil Code or Lower Canada Civil Code | CM / PA by Q. C.C. /L.C. C. C. |
[French only]
