March 12, 2014
OTTAWA (AFP) - A conservation group has teamed up with the Canadian tax man to offer deductions for land donations to help lovelorn moose.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada is looking for land along the border between the country's easternmost Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provinces to create a corridor wildlife can wander through.
The hope is that New Brunswick moose will migrate to Nova Scotia to mate, since the population there is endangered.
"It'd be nice if some New Brunswick moose go over and make friends in Nova Scotia to boost the gene pool and help the species survive there," the Nature Conservancy's Andrew Holland told AFP.
While New Brunswick has a healthy moose population numbering more than 29,000, Nova Scotia's herd has been thinned to only about 1,000 after a parasite infestation.
The campaign was launched in 2013 under the catchy banner "The Moose Sex Project." But the corridor will likely also be used by lynx, bobcat, ducks, bears and deer.
The non-profit has so far secured 13 donated and purchased properties totaling more than 2,060 acres along the Chignecto Isthmus, which includes swamps, lakes, marshes and bogs.
It is now looking to secure an additional 1,730 acres to complete the corridor.
Land donations are eligible for tax breaks under Canada's Ecological Gifts Program, which was set up to help promote biodiversity and environmental conservation.
It is administered by Canada's environment ministry.
To date, 1,054 land gifts valued at more than Can$635 million (US$572 million) have been made across Canada under the program, protecting 150,000 hectares (370,660 acres) of wildlife habitat.
