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Canadian Protected Areas Status Report 2006 to 2011

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Table of Contents

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Environment Canada
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This report covers the period from 2006 to 2011. Since then the federal government has launched the National Conservation Plan, which provides a national vision to advance conservation efforts across the country and includes initiatives related to protected areas.

Under the National Conservation Plan, the federal government announced additional investments of $252 million over five years in three priority areas:

Conserving Canada's lands and waters: safeguarding and enhancing biodiversity and ecosystems through conservation and stewardship actions, and supporting the creation and enjoyment of protected areas and green spaces. For example, the Government of Canada is investing $100 million over five years in the Natural Areas Conservation Program, which helps non-profit, non-government organizations secure ecologically sensitive lands, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Restoring Canada's ecosystems: supporting the restoration of degraded ecosystem, which, once restored, will provide habitat for wildlife and clean water, and are essential for the protection and recovery of species at risk.

Connecting Canadians to nature: leveraging existing successful initiatives to help foster an appreciation for nature and building a "community of stewards" among Canadians of all ages. For example, Environment Canada is investing in ten National Wildlife Areas to improve public access to infrastructure, create trails, and support low-impact uses. As individual sites are enhanced, they will be promoted in the nearby communities to encourage use by residents.

Results and updates with respect to the implementation of the National Conservation Plan will be included in the forthcoming Canadian Protected Areas Status Report, 2010-2015.

Preamble

What is the canadian protected areas status report?

The Canadian Protected Areas Status Report series examines the state of terrestrial and marine protected areas in Canada, including network design, system planning, and protected area establishment and management in Canada.

This report focuses on the period 2006-2011, following up on the first Canadian Protected Areas Status Report 2000-2005 (Government of Canada, 2006) and is a collaborative effort of all provincial, territorial and federal protected area government agencies. Chapter 1 (The Numbers as of 2011), Chapter 2 (Protected Areas Planning) and Chapters 3 (Protected Areas Management) report on the status of protected areas by topic, such as their extent and diversity, protected area strategies, planning for climate change, and managing protected areas for ecological integrity. Appendix 1 provides a statistical summary and map of protected areas for each of the 17 protected areas organizations in Canada (see the list of protected area organizations, below).

Why report on protected areas?

In 1992, Canada's federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Environment, Parks and Wildlife signed A Statement of Commitment to Complete Canada's Networks of Protected Areas. There was impressive growth in protected areas throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. In 2006, the Canadian Council of Resource Ministers approved the release of the Canadian Protected Areas Status Report 2000-2005 and endorsed an ongoing pan-Canadian assessment of the status of Canada's protected areas networks. Accordingly, the Status Reports identify emerging opportunities and priorities regarding the important role of protected areas in conserving Canada's natural capital, and document recent successes and accomplishments. They also allow Canada to examine and report on its commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992), as expressed in the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (CBD, 2004b) and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets (CBD, 2010).

Each chapter of this report introduces key relevant goals and targets from these documents. A summary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme of Work on Protected Areas and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets is contained in Appendix 2.

Who prepared the report?

Environment Canada coordinated development of the Status Report, based on information and data provided by Canada's 17 protected area organizations.

The report focuses on progress in protected areas planning and management from the perspective of Canada's federal, provincial and territorial protected areas organizations. The report also reflects the contributions of non-government partners to protected areas planning and management, including Aboriginal organizations and communities, conservation groups, and industry associations, from a government perspective.

Robert Hélie, Habitat Information Integration, Environment Canada, managed the development of this report. An Advisory Committee provided ongoing strategic and technical advice throughout the drafting of the report.

Under the direction of the Advisory Committee, Pauline Lynch-Stewart, Lynch-Stewart & Associates, and Robert Vanderkam, Habitat Information Integration, Environment Canada, prepared the first draft of the report. Chris Lemieux, University of Waterloo, assisted in the writing of sections on protected area benefits and climate change science and adaptation. Robert Vanderkam completed all data analysis and produced the final drafts of the report. Mark Richardson prepared all maps and figures.

A Steering Committee provided high-level direction and a link to the Canadian Parks Council.

Protected area organizations Content Footnote1 involved in the development of this report

Federal
Organization Short form used in this report Terrestrial Marine
1.  Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AAFC ✓ -
2.  Environment Canada EC ✓ ✓
3.  Fisheries and Oceans Canada DFO - ✓
4.  Parks Canada Agency PCA ✓ ✓
Provincial/Territorial
Organization Short form used in this report Terrestrial Marine
5.  Newfoundland and Labrador NL ✓ ✓
6.  Prince Edward Island PE ✓ ✓
7.  Nova Scotia NS ✓ -
8.  New Brunswick NB ✓ ✓
9.  Quebec QC ✓ ✓
10.  Ontario ON ✓ -
11.  Manitoba MB ✓ ✓
12.  Saskatchewan SK ✓ -
13.  Alberta AB ✓ -
14.  British Columbia BC ✓ ✓
15.  Yukon Territory YT ✓ -
16.  Northwest Territories NT ✓ -
17.  Nunavut NU ✓ -

Federal and Provincial/Territorial Totals

Text Content Footnote

Important Notes On The Report's Data

Canada's 17 protected area organizations provided two main sources of information and data for this report:

1) The Conservation Areas Reporting and Tracking System (CARTS) database:

2) Questionnaire responses:

Interpretation of the Status Report should keep the following caveats in mind.

1) Recent introduction of CARTS:

2) IUCN management categories:

3) IUCN governance types:

4) Marine protected areas (MPAs):

Changes In This Status report, as Compared to 2005

Content from separate chapters on "private conservation lands" and "Aboriginal involvement in protected areas" and "integrated land/ocean management" in the 2006 report is presented in the chapters on protected area planning and management in this report. The status of MPAs is reported in parallel with terrestrial protected areas, rather than in a separate chapter, and there is a focus on the national MPA network as well as individual MPAs.

IUCN Protected Area Management Categories (Dudley, 2008)

IUCN Management Categories represent the intended level of protection as demonstrated by the management plan put in place by the administrators and backed by the policy and program tools. It is not a score card on the outcome or effectiveness of the management actions, although those attributes are being considered for a revised category system.

Category Ia (Strict Nature Reserve) are strictly protected areas set aside to protect biodiversity and also possibly geological/geomorphological features, where human visitation, use and impacts are strictly controlled and limited to ensure protection of the conservation values. Such protected areas can serve as indispensable reference areas for scientific research and monitoring.

Category Ib (Wilderness Area) protected areas are usually large unmodified or slightly modified areas, retaining their natural character and influence, without permanent or significant human habitation, which are protected and managed so as to preserve their natural condition.

Category II (National Park) protected areas are large natural or near-natural areas set aside to protect large-scale ecological processes, along with the complement of species and ecosystems characteristic of the area, which also provide a foundation for environmentally and culturally compatible spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational and visitor opportunities.

Category III (Natural Monument of Feature) protected areas are set aside to protect a specific natural monument, which can be a landform, sea mount, submarine cavern, geological feature such as a cave or even a living feature such as an ancient grove. They are generally quite small protected areas and often have high visitor value.

Category IV (Habitat/Species Management Area) protected areas aim to protect particular species or habitats, and management reflects this priority. Many Category IV protected areas will need regular, active interventions to address the requirements of particular species or to maintain habitats, but this is not a requirement of the category.

Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape) protected areas are where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant ecological, biological, cultural and scenic value; and where safeguarding the integrity of this interaction is vital to protecting and sustaining the area and its associated nature conservation and other values.

Category VI (Protected Area with Sustainable Use of Natural Resources protected areas conserve ecosystems and habitats, together with associated cultural values and traditional natural resource management systems. They are generally large, with most of the area in a natural condition, where a proportion is under sustainable natural resource management and where low-level non-industrial use of natural resources compatible with nature conservation is seen as one of the main aims of the area.

Note: These are abbreviated descriptions of the management categories. For the full descriptions and for more information, please see: PDF file

IUCN Protected Area Governance Types (Dudley, 2008)

Both the IUCN and the CBD recognize the legitimacy of a range of governance types. With respect to who holds decision-making and management authority and responsibility about protected areas, the IUCN distinguishes four broad protected area governance types.

Type A: Governance by government (at federal/ state/subnational or municipal level). A government body (such as a ministry or park agency reporting directly to the government) holds the authority, responsibility and accountability for managing the protected area, determines its conservation objectives (such as the ones that distinguish the IUCN categories), develops and enforces its management plan, and usually also owns the protected area's land, water and related resources.

Type B: Shared governance. Complex institutional mechanisms and processes are employed to share management authority and responsibility among a plurality of (formally and informally) entitled governmental and non-governmental actors. Shared governance, sometimes also referred to as co-management, comes in many forms.

Type C: Private governance. Private governance comprises protected areas under individual, cooperative, NGO or corporate control and/or ownership, and managed under not-for-profit or for-profit schemes. Typical examples are areas acquired by NGOs explicitly for conservation. Many individual landowners also pursue conservation out of respect for the land and a desire to maintain its aesthetic and ecological values.

Type D: Governance by indigenous peoples and local communities. This type includes two main subsets:

  1. indigenous peoples' areas and territories established and run by indigenous peoples; and
  2. community conserved areas established and run by local communities.

The subsets, which may not be neatly separated, apply to both sedentary and mobile peoples and communities. The IUCN defines this governance type as: protected areas where the management authority and responsibility rest with indigenous peoples and/or local communities through various forms of customary or legal, formal or informal, institutions and rules.

Note: These are abbreviated forms of the governance type descriptions. For the full descriptions and for more information, see PDF file.

Glossary

Biological diversity or "biodiversity":
The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. (CBD, 1992)
Bioregions:
The spatial planning framework for Canada's national network of MPAs is 13 ecologically defined bioregions that cover Canada's oceans and the Great Lakes. The 12 oceanic bioregions were identified through a national science advisory process that considered oceanographic and bathymetric similarities, which are important factors in defining habitats and their species. Since this Status Report considers Great Lakes as terrestrial (i.e., freshwater), the Great Lakes bioregion was not considered in this report.
Connectivity:
The conservation of particular areas or corridors to provide physical or functional links or contiguity between core protected areas and thereby contribute to broader-scale landscape conservation. In the marine environment, connectivity in the design of an MPA network allows for linkages where protected sites benefit from larval and/or species exchanges and functional linkages from other network sites. In a connected network, individual sites benefit one another. (CBD, 2009)
Ecological integrity:
There is more than one way to define ecological integrity. A report by the Panel on the Ecological Integrity of Canada's National Parks in 2000 proposed that "an ecosystem has integrity when it is deemed characteristic for its natural region, including the composition and abundance of native species and biological communities, rates of change and supporting processes." According to the Canada National Parks Act, it means "... a condition that is determined to be characteristic of [a park's] natural region and is likely to persist, including abiotic components and the composition and abundance of native species and biological communities, rates of change and supporting processes." (Canada National Parks Act, 2000, in Parks Canada Agency and Canadian Parks Council, 2008)
Ecoregions:
The National Ecological Framework for Canada delineates, classifies and describes ecologically distinct areas of Canada's surface at different levels of generalization using various abiotic and biotic factors at each of the levels. This hierarchical classification evolved with seven levels of generalization. From the broadest to the smallest, they are: ecozones, ecoprovinces, ecoregions, ecodistricts, ecosections, ecosites and ecoelements. Ecoregions are subdivisions of ecoprovinces characterized by regional ecological factors. There are 194 ecoregions in Canada. (Ecological Stratification Working Group, 1995)
Ecozones:
A category in the National Ecological Framework for Canada (see description in Ecoregions, above). Ecozones are the broadest or most general level. Canada has 15 terrestrial ecozones. (Ecological Stratification Working Group, 1995)
Ecosystem:
A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. (CBD, 1992)
Ecosystem services:
Ecological processes or functions having monetary or non-monetary value to individuals or society at large. There are:
  • 1) supporting services, such as productivity or biodiversity maintenance;
  • 2) provisioning services, such as food, fibre or fish;
  • 3) regulating services, such as climate regulation or carbon sequestration; and
  • 4) cultural services, such as tourism or spiritual and aesthetic appreciation. (IPCC, 2007c)
Geodiversity:
The diversity of minerals, rocks (whether "solid" or "drift"), fossils, landforms, sediments and soils, together with the natural processes that constitute the topography, landscape and the underlying structure of the Earth. (McKirdy et al., 2007)
Interim Protected Area:
A protected area (see also) that has not been permanently established but that has been given interim legal protection to protect biodiversity while final establishment is completed.
Land Trust:
A charitable organization which, as all or part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land acquisition or conservation agreements or by engaging in stewardship of such land or conservation agreements. In Quebec, land trusts are non-profit organizations that in some cases do not have charitable status. (Canadian Land Trust Alliance, 2007)
Management effectiveness:
How well a protected area is being managed; primarily the extent to which it is protecting values and achieving goals and objectives. (Hockings et al., 2006)
Marine:
Canada's ocean jurisdiction, from the saltwater shoreline as determined by a 1:50 000- or better-scale map base layer to the outer edge of the Exclusive Economic Zone.
Marine organization:
The protected area organizations (see also) that report to CARTS on the marine components of their protected areas. Of the 17 protected area organizations, 9 have protected areas under their marine jurisdiction (DFO, EC, PCA, BC, MB, QC, NB, PE and NL).
Marine protected area (MPA):
Same definition as for protected area (see also), but specifically pertaining to those protected areas, or portions thereof, located in marine (see also) waters.
(Protected areas) Network:
A collection of individual protected areas that operates cooperatively and synergistically, at various spatial scales, and with a range of protection levels, in order to fulfill ecological aims more effectively and comprehensively than individual sites could alone. (WCPA and IUCN, 2007)
(Protected areas) Network design:
Networks of protected areas conform to network design criteria or properties such as those defined by the CBD for MPA network planning (Secretariat of the CBD,2009). Adherence to design properties is what distinguishes a network of protected areas from a system (as defined below).
(Protected areas) Organizations:
A government agency or department that has the authority to establish and manage protected areas for the conservation of biological diversity. These include all provincial and territorial governments as well as a number of federal departments and agencies.
(Protected areas) Planning:
Refers to the process of planning an individual protected area, a system of protected areas or a network of protected areas.
Protected area:
A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. (Dudley, 2008)
Representativity:
A protected areas network or system has representativity (or is representative) when it consists of areas representing all the different biogeographical subdivisions (e.g., ecologically distinct regions or habitat types) found within the larger planning area. (Secretariat of the CBD, 2009) Representation helps ensure that the full complement of species and habitats have some level of protection.
(Protected areas) System:
A collection of individual protected areas planned on a site-by-site basis to achieve site-specific conservation objectives. The Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories (Dudley, 2008) notes that the IUCN and the World Commission on Protected Areas characterize a protected area system as having five linked elements:
  • 1) representativeness, comprehensiveness and balance;
  • 2) adequacy;
  • 3) coherence and complementarity;
  • 4) consistency; and
  • 5) cost effectiveness, efficiency and equity.
Terrestrial protected areas:
Same definition as for protected area (see also), but pertaining specifically to those protected areas, or portions thereof, located on land or freshwater, including the Great Lakes.
Terrestrial organization:
The protected area organizations (see also) that report to CARTS on the terrestrial components of their protected areas. Of the 17 protected area organizations, all except Fisheries and Oceans Canada have protected areas under their terrestrial jurisdiction.

Highlights

The Numbers

Protected Areas Planning

Protected Areas Management

 
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2017-09-10