Praise for federal, provincial and territorial government protection of parks amid fears of development pressure
Posted on July 17, 2008
Ottawa - Canada’s federal and provincial governments deserve credit for “an extraordinary year” of progress in protecting the country’s parks and wilderness areas, says a review by CPAWS, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
But the review warns that pressures from mining, forestry and other activities threaten both established parks and areas that are still awaiting protection.
The review, Taking Stock of Canada’s Progress on Parks and Protected Areas, comes out the day before the country’s celebration of Canada Parks Day (parksday.ca), Saturday, July 19th.
New parks on land and sea
In April 2008 the federal government promised a new national park to protect the headwaters of the South Nahanni River, an area that is critical for Boreal woodland caribou and grizzly bear. Also the government last August committed to a massive expansion of the existing Nahanni National Park Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In total, the government has protected nearly 140,000 km2 of land in the Northwest Territories on an interim basis within the past year while final plans are put in place for new or expanded wilderness parks.
Progress was made to protect threatened marine and freshwater environments. In October, the federal and provincial governments agreed to establish the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area to create the largest freshwater protected area in the world.
A new conservation area announced in April guarantees protection for the Bowie Seamount, a rare underwater mountain in BC coastal waters. It took ten years for the government of Canada and the Haida Nation to work out the plan.
Among provincial achievements, Manitoba moved to protect a rare limestone lake that changes colour from clear to turqoise to milky blue as the temperature rises.
The Nova Scotia and Quebec governments committed to conserve more land, 12% and 8%, respectively, including the area containing southern Quebec’s last free-flowing river – the Dumoine.
Development threatens established parks
Despite achievements such as these, the review warns that development pressures put the country’s parks and wilderness at risk.
For instance, Algonquin Park, the jewel of Ontario’s park system, still has 5,000 km of logging roads. The park’s road system is longer than the city of Toronto’s and the province has not made good on promises to curtail logging.
In Quebec’s Mont Orford Park, land was removed from the park in 2006 for sale to a private development firm. Although the province has cancelled the sale, the land has not yet been reinstated for conservation.
Especially worrisome is the slow pace of extending protection for coastal areas. Canada promised a network of National Marine Conservation Areas on the three coastlines and Great Lakes by 2012 and will have trouble honouring that commitment.
“Canada is blessed with the longest coastline in the world and 20% of the world’s freshwater,” says Sabine Jessen, CPAWS Marine Program Director. “So far we have only managed to protect a small fraction of this priceless heritage. We have to do better.”
Rare ecosystems including Canada’s own “Jurassic Park” at risk
Another concern is that many sensitive environments that lack protection are suffering irreversible damage. Help may come too late.
For instance, in coastal waters near BC, there are rare mounds of glass sponge reefs, spectacular relics from the Jurassic Period. But before they were banned, fishing nets from trawlers destroyed many sections of the reefs.
In the Okanagan, an unusual desert eco-system of sagebrush and cactus is under threat of development and agriculture.
“Wilderness areas like the Hectate Glass Sponge Reefs and the Okanagan simply cannot wait,” explains Anne Levesque, National Executive Director of CPAWS. “These are such special places that they deserve to be protected – before they are lost forever.”
Canada has opportunity to be world leader
In total, less than 10% of Canada’s landscape and less than 1% of our waters are protected within parks and other forms of conservation areas from industrial development.
“With nearly 20% of the world’s remaining wilderness within our borders, we have one of the most significant opportunities on the planet to conserve the world’s last intact ecosystems,” adds Levesque.
“Canada Parks Day offers us an opportunity to take pride in our natural riches, and to commit to ensuring that they will be here for generations to come.
In every province and territory, CPAWS is working with other organizations, First Nations and governments to create more protected areas that will conserve our extraordinary wilderness heritage.
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For interviews, contact : Ellen Adelberg (613) 560-7226 x 234
In 2008, CPAWS and Mountain Equipment Co-op founded The Big Wild, an initiative that enables people to support the vision that Canada will keep at least half of its land and water forever wild. Add your voice at www.thebigwild.org.
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