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An initial agreement for the ZIP program
One of the major innovations of Phase II of the St. Lawrence Plan (1993-1998, then called St. Lawrence Vision 2000) is the partners’ desire to involve the public in protecting and promoting the river. Each community in the area of coverage should be able to commit to assuming responsibility for its part of the St. Lawrence.
These considerations led to signature of an initial framework agreement on cooperation between the two governments and the non-profit organization Stratégies Saint-Laurent, at an official event attended by the media in Baie-Comeau, on April 7, 1995.
Under this agreement, the new partner of St. Lawrence Vision 2000, Stratégies Saint-Laurent, would assume responsibility for coordinating and setting up 10 ZIP (area of prime concern) committees along the river. This agency, active since 1989, had already set up the first ZIP committees in previous years. However, the agreement, by officially creating the ZIP program managed by St. Lawrence Vision 2000, would ensure regular funding for Stratégies Saint-Laurent as well as the ZIP committees.
There are now 14 ZIP committees along the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers, working in a number of ways. They are very active in local and regional awareness raising, including dissemination of scientific and environmental information. They also coordinate the various players in their own localities (municipalities, industries, environmental activists, etc.), in order to facilitate shared decisions and actions to benefit the river, sometimes on a large scale.
Finally, these ZIP committees intervene directly in the field, implementing or managing many projects to clean up, restore and develop the St. Lawrence in their respective regions, in accordance with an ecological rehabilitation action plan established by each committee on the basis of a regional environmental balance sheet following public consultation.
Date modified: 2008/07/22 – Important Notices
