For decades, southern Quebec has been subject to significant and sustained development pressures, and faces strong trade-offs for the use of the land and resources it contains on an extractive type of economic model that is not changing much. However, Quebec's biodiversity is mainly concentrated in this part of the province, which is more diversified than the areas further north. These pressures affect biodiversity and induce profound changes in the functions and services provided by the ecosystems on which many economic sectors, and more globally, our well-being depend. This situation is all the more worrying since biodiversity is generally recognized as the basis of any adaptation strategy to climate change. In order for Quebec society to cope with environmental changes, whether local or global, it is necessary to develop a different relationship with our natural heritage, especially south of the 49th parallel in Quebec. The growing social demand for environmental protection reflects the importance of these issues for many stakeholders, and there is a broad consensus on the actions that should be taken. Quebec must adopt an ambitious plan to initiate and oversee the changes that are needed in the way we occupy and manage the land and the resources it resources. With this in mind, the Quebec Biodiversity Science Centre (QCBS), the Canada Research Chair in Ecological Economics at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, the Liber Ero Chair in Conservation Biology at McGill University, the Regroupement national des conseils régionaux de l'environnement du Québec and the Réseau de milieux naturels protégés (RMN) have initiated the project of a White Paper for Southern Quebec. The objective of this process is to propose a consensual vision and to bring out major orientations under which concrete measures can be grouped to maintain biodiversity south of the 49th parallel. Click here for more info.