ZEC

A ZEC (in French "zone d'exploitation contrôlée") is a "Controlled harvesting zone". ZECs are a system of territorial infrastructures set up in 1978 by the government of Quebec to take over from private hunting and fishing clubs (following "Opération gestion faune"). They are non profit organisations managed by honorary administrators whose primary responsibility is to manage fishing and hunting activities and see to wildlife conservation on their respective territories [http://www.zecquebec.com/english/index.jsp Welcome page] .

ZEC objectives:
# Wildlife conservation (hunters and anglers must report their catch)
# Access to wildlife resources
# User participation
# Operations must be financially self-sufficient

ZECs fill a much larger economic place than fishing and hunting clubs did as they also promote all types of recreational and tourism activities such as hiking, canoeing, canoe-camping, mountain-biking, rock-climbing, vacationing and cottage rental, camping, wildlife/nature observation, wild berry picking, etc. They are open to all recreational enthusiasts and reservations are generally not required.

Organisation

ZECs are organised into regional groupings to facilitate collaboration between various ZEC administrators [http://www.zecquebec.com/regroup.jsp fr English page was under construction at viewing Oct.2007] . There are 63 ZECs distributed across 11 regional groupings [http://www.zecquebec.com fr Liste des regroupements régionaux pdf] . Four years after the first ZEC inaugurations, the government of Quebec helped the ZEC administrators to found the "Fédération québécoise des gestionnaires de zecs" (FQGZ)" whose role is to provide a common voice to all the ZECs at the provincial level and promote wildlife conservation. [http://www.zecquebec.com/fqgz.jsp FQGZ fr English page was under construction at viewing Oct.2007]

References