The Alberta Government recently announced that they are eliminating or privatizing management of 184 sites from the Alberta Parks system – over one third of all parks sites! They plan on selling assets and transferring parks to third party partners to manage areas removed from the parks system. Areas without a third party partner will revert to unprotected and unserviced public land – leaving it without protected area designation.
“We are dismayed to see this attack on parks and a move towards privatization of public areas when parks are something that Albertans so clearly love,” says Katie Morrison, Conservation Director at CPAWS Southern Alberta.
The government plans on transferring park assets, leases, and management to third party or private partners to manage the sites removed from the parks system, citing First Nations, municipalities and non-profit societies as possible managers. However, it is unlikely that many municipalities or non-profit groups have the resources to adequately take care of these areas. Sites without interest from a private partner will still be removed from the parks system completely and revert to vacant public land – something that could lead to abandonment of recreational infrastructure, and industrial resource extraction instead of conservation.
This is an attack on the Alberta Parks system, with the removal of protected area designation of up to 39% of all parks sites in the province, including areas expressly meant to provide recreational use, wilderness education, and conservation of the land. Divestment of parks is short-sighted and puts our natural heritage at risk. The government has announced these sweeping changes to remove parks and protected areas without any public consultation, in a time when the rest of Canada has committed to increasing protection. Canada has committed to protect 17% of its land by 2020, 25% of its land by 2025 and 30% by 2030. Alberta has not yet met its 17% protection target, and is unlikely to contribute to this goal by removing protection from 164 parks.
CPAWS Northern Alberta’s Program Director, Tara Russell, voiced her concern: “Ignoring the needs for increased protection, in the midst of a climate and biodiversity crisis is irresponsible, and a disservice to Albertans.”
The plans to close or remove so many sites from the protected areas system is hard to reconcile with the Alberta government’s protection goals, and its goals to more than double tourism revenue by 2030. Executive Director of CPAWS Southern Alberta, Brad Clute, said “people travel to Alberta for its stunning natural beauty, and outdoor adventures. To remove the places that tourists and Albertans want to spend money in our province, while likely increasing damage to those areas through increased visitation, makes no sense.”
People from across Canada travel to camp, hike and fish in Alberta’s mountains, foothills forests and rolling prairies. Our parks protect habitat for fish and wildlife, provide an important opportunity for visitors to experience Alberta and help support the growing tourism economy. While the rest of Canada is working towards creating new protected areas to help meet our international conservation commitments, Alberta is eliminating parks.
For more information, contact:
Katie Morrison, Conservation Director
CPAWS Southern Alberta
kmorrison@localhost
780-328-3780