by:
Hon. Jim Prentice, PC, MP, QC
Canada's Minister of Environment and Minister responsible
for Parks Canada
The United Nations marked 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity to highlight the need to protect the world's plant and animal resources. If Canada's record over the past four years in protecting biodiversity were an Olympic-style competition, we would be worthy of a gold medal.
Consider: in the first century since Canada created its first national park in 1885, Parks Canada's conservation achievements rose steadily. Progress accelerated in the following two decades.
But in the past four years, the rate of achievement has shot up exponentially as we set aside more and more areas of wilderness and water.
It took 121 years for Canada set aside 277,000 km2 of our nation in a system of national parks and national marine conservation areas. Since 2006, we have protected an additional 45,500 km2 , and taken actions that will further expand this system by another 40,000 km2. In total, an increase of 30%.
We are protecting a wide range of Canadian biodiversity, and the world is noticing.
Recently, the U.S. based Pew Environmental Group congratulated Prime Minister Harper and our provincial partner on signing an agreement aimed at creating a national park reserve in the Mealy Mountains of Labrador. By setting aside these lands, we will protect the biodiversity of vast expanses of wetland, tundra, and boreal forest for the use and enjoyment of future generations.
On the opposite coast, we work with the Haida Nation and other interests to create a national marine conservation area reserve off the shores of the existing Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve. For the Haida people, the land does not exist independently of the sea. The boundary between earth and ocean exists only on a map.
Canada will become the first country to protect a region from the alpine meadows of the mountain tops, to the depths of the ocean floor beyond the continental shelf. David Suzuki recently observed, “This is really a world-class, ground-breaking approach to conservation.”
The reserve will protect some of the world's most abundant and diverse marine communities, and this wealth of marine resources will continue to sustain local communities as well as a recreational and commercial fishery. Guujaaw, President of the Haida Nation, has remarked that, with this approach “Gwaii Haanas will light a clearly needed beacon on troubled waters.”
We are protecting the diversity of Canada's natural heritage: from the waters of Lake Superior to Lancaster Sound at the entrance of the Northwest Passage, from the mountains and rivers of the Nahanni to the forests and barren lands of the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.
We recently reintroduced the Black-footed Ferret to Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. We also reintroduced the Plains Bison, returning them to the habitat where they once roamed in the millions. Internationally, we have transferred Wood Bison from Elk Island National Park to Alaska and Russia. And our efforts continue on behalf of many species.
Canada has won international recognition for our conservation efforts not only for the vast areas of land and water that we have set aside, but also for the manner in which we work with local communities and Aboriginal peoples to ensure their traditional uses and cultures are sustained while working collaboratively to manage these sacred places.
Canadians understand there is a sense of urgency. With the 21st century's rapid pace of change and development, we may be the last generation with the option of protecting these areas for the future.
Canada is demonstrating international leadership, and showing what can be done when a country like ours has the vision and the will to achieve great things.
We can indeed be proud of our ongoing conservation achievements: this is truly a gold medal performance.
