PROTECTED AREAS IN CANADA

Paulo Bidegain

Parks and protected areas in Canada have a long tradition, dating back to 1885. The first designated protected area was Banff National Park, established in 1885 to protect hot springs discovered on the eastern slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, only three years after Yellowstone National Park was established by USA.

It was followed by the Parks of Niagara (1885, formerly known as Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park) established by the Government of Ontario, Last Mountain Lake (1887) in Saskatchewan, Canada’s first waterfowl refuge, and two Ontario Provincial Parks, Algonquin (1893) and Rondeau (1894). 

In 1911 the world’s first organization charged with the management of national parks, the Dominion Parks Branch, was established, which is nowadays the Parks Canada Agency. 

Under the Constitution of Canada, responsibility for environmental management, including in that broad mandate the designation and implementation of parks and protected areas in Canada, is a shared responsibility between the federal government and provincial/territorial governments. A small but increasing number is also administered by Aboriginal governments and communities. Some protected areas are jointly managed by two or more administrations.  

Canada has ratified the following international agreements relating to protected areas and habitats:

·      Convention on Biological Diversity;

·    Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar); 

·      Declaration of Intent for the Conservation of North American Birds and their Habitat;  

·      Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitats;

·      Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds in the United States and Canada;  

·   Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States on the Conservation of the Porcupine Caribou Heard;

·     Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage World Heritage Convention;

By 2011, figures show that: 

·    Canada has substantially grown the amount of area protected in the last 60 years: 1950 = 1.7% of Canada: 1975 = 3.0%; 2000 = 6.7%; 2005 = 9.3%; 2010 = 11.8%);

·   Canada has set aside 11.8% of its lands and freshwaters as protected areas (permanent and interim);

·    Only 45,280 km² (0.64 %) of Canada’s oceans are protected;

·   Canada’s terrestrial protected areas network includes a total of 117.9 million hectares (ha). 36.0 million hectares ha (30.5%) of these lands currently have interim protection;

·    For IUCN categories I to IV, Canada has set aside 7.9% (78.9 M ha) of its lands and freshwaters;

·    20% of Canada’s ecozones are afforded greater than 20% protection, 40% have between 10% and 20% protection, and 40% have less than 10% protection;

·   The extent of protected areas in Canada varies considerably between different ecological regions of the country. 22.4% of the Arctic Cordillera ecozone is found within protected areas, compared with 8.4% of the Boreal Shield ecozone, and 1.1% of the Mixedwood Plain ecozone (Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Valley).

·   Three jurisdictions have set aside more than 10% of their area: British Columbia at 14.5%, Alberta at 12.5% and Yukon at 10.8% ;

·   Northwest Territories and Quebec have added the most area of new protected areas between 2000 and 2010 (23,011.437 and 12,551,481 hectares respectively);

·   Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have increased the most between 2000 and 2010 as a percent of what they had in 2000 (2009% and 342% respectively) (Environment Canada, 2009; Lee and Cheng, 2010)

In Canada, at federal level, there is not an official system of parks and protected established by law. Instead, many types of protected areas have been designed and managed by separated institutions based on specific acts and policies. Each has its own legislation, with different level of protection.

Summary of Canada’s Federal Protected Areas of National and International Recognition

Recognition	Type	Steward	Legislation	Major Policy
National Recognition	National Parks and National Parks Reserve	Parks Canada Agency	National Parks Act	National Park System Plan
	Gatineau Park	NCC	None	Gatineau Park Management Plan
	National Historic Sites	Parks Canada Agency	Historic Sites and Monuments Act	National Historic Sites of Canada System Plan
	National Marine Conservation Areas	Parks Canada Agency	Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act	i) National Marine Conservation Areas Policy ii) Sea to Sea to Sea –Canada’s National Marine Conservation Areas System Plan
	Marine Protected Areas	Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)	Oceans Act	i) National Framework for Establishing and Managing Marine Protected Areas ii) Ocean Strategy
	Migratory Bird Sanctuary	Environment Canada - Canadian Wildlife Service	Migratory Birds Convention Act:	Migratory Bird Sanctuary Policy, Criteria and Procedures
	National Wildlife Areas	Environment Canada - Canadian Wildlife Service	Canada Wildlife Act:	i) Wildlife Policy for Canada Criteria for Selecting Candidate National Wildlife Areas
	Heritage Rivers	Parks Canada Agency (CHR Board Secretariat)	No new legislation, depend on existing laws and regulation	Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS)
International Recognition	Wetlands of International Importance	Environment Canada Canadian Wildlife Service	Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar)	National Ramsar Program Federal Policy on Wetland Conservation
	World Heritage Sites	Parks Canada	World Heritage Convention	Tentative List for World Heritage Sites in Canada.
	Biosphere Reserves	Environment Canada	None	The UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve Program

Source: compiled from several sources.    

Additionally, there are at least more 13 protected areas systems, being 10 provincial and three territorial.

Parks Canada is the major protected area agency, managing 42 parks, ranging in size from 8.7 km² to 44,807 km² and collectively covering an area of 224,466 km², which represents 2.2% of the total area of Canada. 

Environment Canada is responsible for 51 National Wildlife Areas (NWAs) and 92 Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, to protect habitat for migratory birds, support wildlife or ecosystems at risk, or represent rare or unusual wildlife habitat or a biogeographic region. Fisheries and Oceans Canada manages eight marine protected areas (MPAs).

Forty-one rivers have been nominated to the Canadian Heritage Rivers System (CHRS), totalling almost 11,000 kilometres. Canada presently has 37 sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Site), with a surface area of 13,066,675 hectares. On top of that, 16 Biosphere Reserve and 15 World Heritage Sites have been established. 

In 1992, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial ministers of environment, parks and wildlife signed a Statement of Commitment to Complete Canada’s Network of Protected Areas, but the goals weren’t met

Major challenges related to protected areas plan and management are:

·      The needs for a national strategy and an up-to-date management plan;  

·      Insufficient human and financial resources; 

·    Pressures for development within the parks to accommodate the demands of visitors without damaging the ecosystems;

·      Visitor satisfaction improvement;

·     Keep national parks’ ecological integrity;

·   External threats management, such as invasion by exotic species, poaching, mining, logging, agriculture, urbanization, fire, water projects, hunting, tourism, acid precipitation, and chemical pollution;

·     Effects of climate change, in which several protected areas are project to experience a change in biome type (parks will no longer be representative of their natural region);

·   Research partnerships (Dearden, 2008, Dearden and Mitchell, 2009, Lemieux. and. Scott, 2005)

Sources

Dearden, P & Mitchell, B. I. (2009). Endanged Species and Protected Areas. In: ___.  Environmental Change and Challenge: A Canadian Perspective. Third Edition, Oxford University Press.

Dearden, P. (2008). Progress and Problems in Canada’s Protected Areas: Overview of Progress, Chronic Issues and Emerging Challenges in the Early 21st Century. Paper Commissioned for Canadian Parks for Tomorrow: 40th Anniversary Conference, May 8 to 11, 2008, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.  Retrieved December 2, 2011, from University of Calgary Website: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/46957

Dudley, N. (Editor) (2008). Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.  x+ 86pp.

Dudley, N., Mulongoy, K.J., Cohen S, Stolton, S., Barber, C.V. & Gidda, S.B. (2005). Towards Effective Protected Area Systems. An Action Guide to Implement the Convention on Biological Diversity Programme of Work on Protected Areas. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Technical Series no. 18, 108 pages.

Ecological Stratification Working Group (1995). A National Ecological Framework for Canada. Report and national map at 1:7 500 000 scale. Ottawa: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Research Branch, Centre for Land and Biological Resources Research; and Hull: Environment Canada, State of the Environment Directorate, Ecozone Analysis Branch.

Environment Canada. (2008). Compendium of International Environmental Agreements. Gatineau, Quebec. Multilateral and Bilateral Relations Directorate. International Affairs Branch.

NRC. (2011). Protected Areas through Time In: ____. The Atlas of Canada. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/protectedarea

Environment Canada. (2009). Canada’s 4th National Report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Gatineau, Quebec. Ecosystems and Biodiversity Priorities Division.

Lee, P. and Cheng, R. (2010). Canada’s Terrestrial Protected Areas Status Report 2010: Number, Area and “Naturalness.” Edmonton, Alberta. Global Forest Watch Canada, 10th Anniversary Publication #6. 155 pp. The most updated source of Canada protected areas.   

Lemieux, C. and. Scott, D. J. (2005). Climate change, biodiversity conservation and protected area planning in Canada. The Canadian Geographer 49, no 4 (2005) 384–399

UNEP/CDB (2011). United Nation Decade of Biodiversity. Protected Areas Fast Facts. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from UNEP Website:    

http://www.cbd.int/undb/media/factsheets/en/undb-factsheet-pa-en.pdf