Protected area with sustainable use

A protected area with sustainable use (PASU) is a protected area characterized by the presence of natural conditions on the greater part of the land and by sustainable use of its natural resources. The land must be developed for the benefit of the local and Aboriginal communities concerned. Its management must be exemplary, and the communities’ participation must be encouraged.

This status aims to protect ecosystems, habitats, and the cultural values associated with them. The concept was introduced during the 2021 revision of the Natural Heritage Conservation Act.

This new status is currently being drafted. It will draw on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories.

Implementation guidelines for this new status are currently being developed. An information document on PASUs (French, PDF, 2.0 MB) is, however, available. It is intended to support participants in the regional dialogue exercise, carried out as part of the work on the call for projects on protected areas in southern public territories. Any content in this document is subject to change and may be presented differently in the official guidelines.

Forum on protected areas with sustainable use

A forum on protected areas with sustainable use was held in 2024 to validate the preliminary guidelines on the PASU status, which are currently being developed.

This collaborative process aimed to bring together all territorial stakeholders through conferences, workshops, and discussion sessions, including:

• First Nations representatives;
• municipalities;
• regional county municipalities (RCMs);
• environmental organizations in the conservation sector;
• managers of structured wildlife territories;
• representatives from various ministries;
• academics.

These discussions will contribute to developing a status adapted to the context of Québec and meeting the needs expressed by territorial stakeholders. Following the organization of the Forum, the Regroupement des conseils régionaux de l’environnement du Québec (RNCREQ) produced:

• The Proceedings of the Forum ( PDF, 3.4 MB), which present the main recommendations of the participants and will contribute to reflections surrounding the development of guidelines on the PASU status;
• The illustrated summary (French, PDF, 4.3 MB), which presents various highlights of the event.

Pilot projects

In June 2021, two pilot projects were launched on the territory of lac à Moïse and on Île d’Anticosti to help draft guidelines for the status and to test this new protected area model in Québec.

Literature review and case studies

To gain insight on the applicability of the IUCN protected area management categories, the Ministère has carried out knowledge acquisition work on protected areas in management categories V and VI.

The Étude de cas d’aires protégées de catégorie VI (APUDR) : analyse et recommandations à des fins de mise en œuvre au Québec (French, PDF, 23 MB) presents a statistical portrait of category VI protected areas worldwide, an analysis of 27 existing category VI protected areas, the concept of sustainable use of natural resources, and recommendations for the implementation of category VI protected areas in Québec.

The “Étude de cas d’aires protégées de catégorie V (paysage protégé) : analyse et recommandations à des fins de mise en œuvre au Québec” report for category V protected areas (in French only) is available on the webpage on man-made landscapes (French).

Contact

If you have questions on protected area with sustainable use, please contact us at apud@environnement.gouv.qc.ca.