Apr. 24, 2008, Charlottetown, PEI
– Farmers who preserve the environment will be rewarded under a new program
announced by the P.E.I. government.
Apr. 24, 2008, Charlottetown, PEI – Farmers who take steps to preserve the environment will be recognized and rewarded under a new Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) program announced by the Prince Edward Island government.
Under the revolutionary system, farmers will be paid for the ecological goods and services that all Islanders receive from a properly managed landscape. There has been $750,000 allocated to this program in the current provincial budget.
Under the ALUS program announced, a broad-based committee of stakeholders will design a program of incentives that would reward farmers for land use. Incentives could include financial payments, tax measures or special considerations.
The provincial government hired a full-time coordinator for a province-wide Alternate Land Use Services Program (ALUS) earlier in April.
Shawn Hill, an employee of the Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry, was selected to coordinate the province-wide ALUS effort on behalf of government. He brings more than nine years of experience as a watershed coordinator in the department’s water management division.
Hill will work on developing incentive programs that reward landowners and farmers who adopt management practices that protect wild areas and watersheds.
The ALUS program will run until March 31, 2009 at which time the program success will be evaluated.
ALUS pilot programs have already met with success near Blanchard, Manitoba and in Norfolk County, Ontario.
Print this page
