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The Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Project

Image - Photo of Off Highway Vehicles

Nature Canada is the national voice of naturalists in Canada, representing more than forty thousand individual members and supporters in every province and territory. They coordinate the Canadian Nature Network, which includes over 350 affiliated local and provincial naturalist clubs from coast to coast.

Nature Canada's mission is to protect nature, its diversity, and the processes that sustain it. Central to this mission are its efforts to ensure the permanent protection of habitat for birds, species at risk, and broader biodiversity. At the same time, Nature Canada is working to build a nature ethic throughout Canadian society.

What are they doing?

OHV use is increasingly prevalent in rural Canada. OHV use can have drastic and often irreversible environmental consequences. OHVs can consume as much as eight times the oil and gas consumed by ordinary automobiles. The OHV Project will address the following types of off-highway vehicles: all-terrain vehicles, motocross or off-road motorcycles, and personal watercraft.

The OHV Project will be implemented over two years. The project has two central goals. The first is to educate the public about the environmental impacts of OHV use. The second is to bring a range of stakeholder groups together to develop a common vision for sustainable OHV use, particularly in rural areas. The stakeholder groups targeted by the project will include OHV users/user groups, First Nations and Aboriginal peoples, private landowners, government decision-makers and OHV manufacturers. The general Canadian public will also be educated through the OHV Project.

Key outputs of the OHV Project will include the following: i) a dissemination report that presents the range of perspectives held by different stakeholder groups, articulates their common vision for sustainable OHV use and recommends next steps for addressing this issue; ii) a series of educational materials, including a brochure and fact sheets, that raise public awareness in Canada about this issue; and iii) a public awareness campaign that educates the public through articles in magazines and newsletters, the Internet, public service announcements and press releases.

Nature Canada will develop online tools for sharing the OHV Committee's research on the impacts of unsustainable OHV use, for soliciting feedback from Canadians about the issue, and for making the dissemination report and educational materials available to the public.

Where can you find more information?

Nature Canada Website

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Date modified:
2010-11-02