GEO 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Victoria, British Columbia, National Marine Conservation Area, National Parks Of Canada
18 Jun 2018
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Protected areas in Canada: decade of change
PHILIP DEARDEN
Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8N 3P5 (e-mail: [email protected])
JESSICA DEMPSEY
Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z2 (e-mail: [email protected])
The last decade has witnessed more changes in
protected area systems in Canada than any other.
The area set aside has more than doubled, and almost
7 percent of Canada’s ecosystems are now protected
compared with 3 percent in 1989. Several high-profile
reports have indicated a decline in ecological integrity
of protected area systems. Major changes in legislation
and policy have followed with a new National Parks Act,
National Marine Conservation Areas Act, a Parks
Canada Agency Act and a revised national park’s
policy. The paper describes these major changes and
their implications, provides understanding of why they
occurred and suggests ongoing challenges facing
protected area systems in Canada in the future.
Introduction
Banff was set aside as Canada’s first national park in
1885. Since that time, the amount of land in park
systems in Canada has increased dramatically and
new legislation and policies have been introduced.
The last decade of the twentieth century, and up to
2002, has witnessed more changes than all from
the preceding century. This article reviews these
changes, provides some understanding of why they
happened and identifies areas of ongoing challenge.
The primary emphasis is on Parks Canada, although
some attention is directed towards significant
changes at the provincial level. The first part of the
paper synthesises the main changes that have
occurred. The second and third parts provide some
explanation for these changes and prognostication
for the future, respectively.
La dernie`r e d e´cennie a te´moigne´ plus de
changements des syste`mes d’ aires prote´g e´e s a u
Canada que tout autre. Les aires mises de coˆt e´ ont
plus que double´et presque 7 pour cent d’e´cosyste`mes
au Canada sont maintenant prote´g e´s compare´s a`3
pour cent en 1989. Plusieurs rapports de haut-profil
ont indique´le de´clin dans l’inte´grite´e´cologique des
syste`mes d’ aires prote´g e´es. Des changements
importants de le´gislation et de police ont e´t e´ mis en
effet avec un nouvel Acte de Parcs Nationaux, un Acte
des Re´gions Marines Nationales de Conservation, un
Acte d’Agence de Parcs Canadiens et un Acte
National des Parcs re´vise´. L’article de´crit ces
changements principaux et leurs implications,
explique pourquoi ils se sont produits et sugge`re les
de´fis que les syste`mes d’ aires prote´g e´es au Canada
rencontreront a` l’avenir.
The Canadian Geographer / Le Ge´ographe canadien 48, no 2 (2004) 225–239
ß/ Canadian Association of Geographers / L’Association canadienne des ge´ographes
Decade of Change
Increased size, scope and use of protected areas
in Canada
Approximately 38 million hectares were added to
the protected areas system between 1989 and
2000 (Table 1). An estimated 6.84 percent of
Canadian ecosystems are now protected, compared
to 2.95 percent in 1989 (McNamee 2002a). This
increase mimics global trends—over 17.1 million
square kilometres of land are now protected
globally, covering approximately 11.5 percent of
the terrestrial earth compared with 4 million square
kilometres in 1987, covering less than 2 percent of
the earth (World Commission on Environment and
Development 1987; Chape et al. 2003).
In the national park system in Canada, the area
protected has increased over 6 million hectares,
and 109,510 ha have been set aside for future
parks. Furthermore in September 2002, Prime
Minister Chretien announced at the Global Summit
on Sustainable Development in South Africa plans
to increase the size of the national park system
by at least 50 percent. This would include 10 new
national parks and would see 35 of Parks Canada’s
39 natural regions represented (Environment
Canada 1990). The remaining four regions are
in Que´bec where jurisdictional issues are still
outstanding. Negotiations have already been
completed for new parks in the Gulf Islands of BC
and Ukkusiksalik in Nunavut. Federal–provincial
negotiations continue for park proposals in the
Interlake region of Manitoba, the Torngat and
Mealy Mountains in Labrador, the South Okanagan
(BC) and the East Arm of Great Slave Lake (NWT).
Sites will also be identified in the Interior Northern
Plateau in BC and the Great Lakes St Lawrence
natural regions.
The federal government also committed to work
with partners to establish five new national marine
conservation areas (NMCAs), adding an estimated
15,000 km
2
to the system. Three sites have been
identified: Gwaii Haanas off BC’s Queen Charlotte
Islands, the Southern Strait of Georgia and in West-
ern Lake Superior. Sites for the remaining areas
are yet to be finalised.
There also have been significant additions to
provincial park systems (Table 1). British Columbia
has added over 325 new protected areas and
increased the area in existing ones, making it the
only province to protect over 12 percent of its land
base. In Manitoba, parks now encompass 8.61 per-
cent of the province, up from 0.49 percent, the
largest percentage increase of all provinces. The
Ontario government created 378 new protected
areas, adding 2.4 million hectares. Nova Scotia
also has made considerable progress in represent-
ing natural regions, moving from 5.2 percent of
natural region coverage to 44.2 percent. This
increase is particularly significant given that only
30 percent of the Nova Scotia land base is Crown
owned (McNamee 2002a).
Table 1
Amounts of land protected in each jurisdiction from 1989 to 2000 (modified from World Wildlife Fund 2000)
Area protected
1989 (hectares) Percent
Area protected
2000 (hectares) Percent
Increase in
percent protection
Federal 18,205,000 1.82 24,961,500 2.50 0.68
Yukon 3,218,300 6.67 5,008,000 10.38 3.71
Northwest Territories/Nunavut 6,978,550 2.03 17,941,954 5.22 3.19
British Columbia 4,958,300 5.25 10,770,100 11.40 6.15
Alberta 5,642,000 8.52 6,612,303 8.99 1.47
Saskatchewan 1,936,000 2.97 3,912,800 6.01 3.04
Manitoba 315,400 0.49 5,579,883 8.61 8.13
Ontario 5,152,900 4.79 9,405,300 8.74 3.95
Que´bec 622,800 0.40 6,646,278 4.31 3.91
New Brunswick 88,800 1.22 232,500 3.19 1.97
Nova Scotia 138,700 2.51 458,615 8.30 5.79
Prince Edward Island 6,000 1.06 23,709 4.19 3.13
Newfoundland/Labrador 367,500 0.91 1,736,300 4.28 3.38
Total 29,425,250 2.95 68,327,742 6.84 3.90
The Canadian Geographer / Le Ge´ographe canadien 48, no 2 (2004)
226 Philip Dearden and Jessica Dempsey
Significant events 1988–2001: legislation, policy
and campaigns
This section describes the main changes in legisla-
tion and policy including some of the key reports
that helped focus attention on the need for these
changes. These changes are summarised in
Figure 1, along with changes in national park
visitation and the amount of protected area in
Canada.
1988 Amendments to the 1930 National Park Act.
Parks Canada has struggled for many years with
the tension between the protection of and the
recreational use of national parks. The 1930
National Park Act ambiguously dedicated the
parks ‘to the people of Canada for their benefit,
education and enjoyment and such Parks shall be
maintained and made use of so as to leave them
unimpaired for the enjoyment of future gener-
ations’ (Canada 1930, section 4). The mandate
was clarified in the 1964 and 1979 national park
policies, which both clearly prioritise ecological
integrity and park protection over ‘enjoyment’
and tourism (Canada 1969, 1983). However,
because policy is not legally binding,
conservationists began to push for the legislation
of this single mandate into the National Parks Act
(McNamee 1988, 2002b), which led to the passing
of the 1988 National Park Amendments. The
amended Act states that the ‘Maintenance of eco-
logical integrity through the protection of natural
resources shall be the first priority when consider-
ing park zoning and visitor use in a management
plan’ (Canada 1988, 5.1.2). The 1988 amendments
also enabled the Governor in Council to give legal
recognition to wilderness zones within parks,
heightening the level of protection on these lands
by prohibiting any activities that are ‘likely to
impair the wilderness character of the area’
(Canada 1988, 5.8).
Several other amendments were designed to
strengthen agency accountability. Park manage-
ment plans, while already required by policy,
became a legislative requirement. The Minister
now must table park management plans in
Parliament within 5 years of new park establish-
ment. Public participation was strengthened
through the amendments, requiring the Minister,
NP Act amendments
ESpaces campaign
Natrional Park policy revision
Banff-Bow Valley report
Auditor General's report
State of the Parks report
Parks Canada Agency Act
Ecological Integrity report
Ecological Integrity panel
National Parks Act
National Marine Conservation Areas Act
Prime Minister's Action Plan
Park visitation (millions of visitors)
Year and events
Area protected (millions of hectares)
Area protected
Park visitation
Figure 1
Summary of main national park events since 1988 and increases in area protected and visitation
The Canadian Geographer / Le Ge´ographe canadien 48, no 2 (2004)
Protected areas in Canada 227
Document Summary
Department of geography, university of victoria, victoria, british columbia, canada v8n 3p5 (e-mail: pdearden@office. geog. uvic. ca) Department of geography, university of british columbia, vancouver, british columbia, canada v6t 1z2 (e-mail: jdempsey@interchange. ubc. ca) The last decade has witnessed more changes in protected area systems in canada than any other. The area set aside has more than doubled, and almost. 7 percent of canada"s ecosystems are now protected compared with 3 percent in 1989. Several high-profile reports have indicated a decline in ecological integrity of protected area systems. Major changes in legislation and policy have followed with a new national parks act, Canada agency act and a revised national park"s policy. The paper describes these major changes and their implications, provides understanding of why they occurred and suggests ongoing challenges facing protected area systems in canada in the future. La derniemes d" aires prote ge es au.
