Brier Island - photo by Mike Dembeck. c/o Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The Nature Conservancy for Canada is celebrating Earth Week by encouraging Nova Scotia to speed up the rate in which it protects its land.

Jamiee Morozoff is the NCC program director for Nova Scotia, she is proud of the pace at which land is entering into conservation in the province but knows we can always do better.

“We’ve been really busy. The pace of conservation is picking up and we’re accelerating that pace to help meet some of the targets that have been set by the federal government,” said Morozoff.

The government of Canada has set a goal of having 25 percent of the country’s land protected by 2025. Currently, about 13 percent of land is protected in Nova Scotia.

“We are leading in terms of Atlantic provinces, and in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, we’re ahead of all of them, but we’re pretty middle of the pack in terms of across Canada,” said Morozoff.

One of the ways that NCC is accelerating the pace of protection in the province is by using a new tool called Other Effective Area Based Conservation Measures, or OECM’s. OECM’s allow provinces to designate large properties that are used for purposes other than conservation, as conservation sites.

One example in Nova Scotia is the Fortress of Louisburg.

“There’s 5,900 hectares, give or take, of land surrounding the fortress, and it’s, essentially being protected, but it wasn’t actually a protected area. Now it’s one of the most recent OECM designations in Nova Scotia, recognizing that it’s protecting the natural ecosystems that are there,” said Morozoff.

Morozoff encourages anyone interested in designating their land as a conservation site to get in touch with the NCC by visiting their website.