Private protection of biodiversity and taxation of the wilderness market: a history of voluntary conservation in Quebec (1980−2014)
Since the late 1980s, the province of Quebec has been witnessing a proliferation of ecological protection laws concerning private land. For example, the number of natural reserves on private land, ecological gifts, conservation easements and land trusts are now increasing in some areas of southern Quebec. Given that such land transactions are, by nature, private, this trend remains largely unknown. However, it has nevertheless had a substantial impact on the shaping of certain contemporary policies on natural heritage conservation in Quebec. Through a detailed search of departmental archives and a series of interviews with key actors, this article traces the genesis of the voluntary conservation movement in Quebec. It highlights how the Canadian and Quebec governments, as well as some non-profit corporations, facilitated the establishment of a network of private protected areas, yet that these are, through tax benefits, largely funded by the public treasury. The analysis of this institutionalization of voluntary conservation in Quebec reveals how the government has been an active agent in the decentralization, privatization and progressive taxation of ecological heritage conservation in Quebec.