The Nova Scotia government has reached an agreement to buy roughly 25,000 acres of land from Bowater Mersey, which it says will provide more recreational opportunities along the South Shore.

The purchase is part of the province's $50-million rescue plan to protect jobs at the struggling Bowater Mersey pulp and paper mill in Liverpool. The total price of the land purchase is $23.7 million.

Premier Darrell Dexter says it will also help meet the government's goal of protecting 12 per cent of the province's land mass by 2015.

"We will soon see highly valuable land back in the hands of Nova Scotians," said Premier Darrell Dexter in a statement released Friday. "The purchase of these lands enriches our environment, provides us with more land to enjoy, and helps keep a major employer on the South Shore."

"Buying land is always a good investment, and securing high value conservation lands like these is especially good investment for biodiversity and future generations," said Ray Plourde, wilderness co-ordinator, Ecology Action Centre.

The land sits on 29 blocks in Annapolis, Hants, Lunenburg, Queens and Shelburne Counties. Almost 60 per cent of the land is in Annapolis County.

Two blocks totaling around 400 hectares are of special interest to Mi'kmaq leaders who were involved in the process. The land is close to two reserves.

"We have been working jointly with the Nova Scotia government to select lands for today's purchase," said Chief Gerard Julian, co-chair of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq Chiefs. "We are pleased that land with cultural significance for the Mi'kmaq people was among the final parcels selected."

Eighty-three per cent of the sale involves productive forest land, while more than 120 kilometres is situated along lakes and rivers.

The rest is mostly wetlands and less than two per cent has been cut over.

"These land purchases are a strategic investment in Nova Scotia's future," said Chris Miller, national conservation biologist with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. "The properties are of high conservation value, and support old growth forests, species-at-risk habitat, frontage on significant waterways, and large intact forests."

Late last year, unionized workers at the mill voted to cut 110 jobs in an effort to reduce labour costs and help save the operation, which employed about 300 people.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant and The Canadian Press