The Québec City Convention Centre welcomes Québec RE3, an international conference on ecosystem restoration from June 11 to 15, 2023. The theme for this 1st edition is From Reclaiming to Restoring and Rewilding (hence the name RE3).
As economic development and climate change accelerate in North America’s temperate, boreal and arctic regions, nature-based mitigation solutions to restore biodiversity losses are becoming paramount. As a result of the negotiations at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Montréal in December 2022, the following resolution was adopted:
Target 2
Ensure that by 2030 at least 30% of areas of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration, in order to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, ecological integrity and connectivity.
This underscores the relevance of a national and international event, such as Québec RE3, to commit to advancing Canada’s vision of restoring our degraded ecosystems and contributing to the global effort.
This is the first time since 2004, after a meeting in Victoria, British Columbia, that ecosystem restoration practitioners, regulators, and scientists come together in Canada. After the 2020 and 2021 editions of RE3 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event’s organizing committee is looking forward to welcoming the 700 expected participants.
“The advantage of Québec City for this conference was its central location for easy access to the various restoration sites in the field and the willingness to demonstrate the know-how of Quebecers. With 23 on-site field tours offered throughout the province, participants will be able to better understand the context of the projects in order to adapt the techniques to their own realities,” explained Line Rochefort, President of the Québec RE3 organizing committee and a full professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at Université Laval. Ms. Rochefort is also a member of the Québec City’s Ambassadors’ Club. She won Ambassador of the Year in 2013.
Québec RE3’s organizing committee has been working on bringing this event to the Québec City Convention Centre since 2015, when a bid was submitted during the 6th Society of Ecological Restoration (SER) World Conference in Manchester, England.
Among the major partners of Québec RE3 is Québec City Business Destination the regional sales force for business tourism (Bronze partner).
The Québec RE3 international conference alone is expected to generate nearly $2 million in economic spinoffs for the region. Its program promises a full 5-day event with workshops, including one with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), an academy for young professionals, several seminars, exhibits, poster sessions, a discussion forum on the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, field trips, and numerous networking opportunities.
