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BIODIVERSITY:
Protected Areas
A
protected area
is a geographic
region in which
certain activities
that cause ecological
damage are restricted
or prohibited.
Originally created
to promote recreation
and  tourism,
protected areas
are now viewed
as critical wildlife
conservation
areas –
the modern equivalent
of Noah’s
Ark. The primary
goals of protected
areas are to
maintain biodiversity,
allow ecological
processes to
continue and
provide recreational
opportunities.
Protected
areas in Canada
include national
parks, provincial
parks, ecological
reserves, wildlife
management areas
and conservation
areas.
It
is important
to recognize
that parks are
not a panacea
for conserving
biodiversity.
According to
Environment Canada,
“protected
areas are increasingly
affected by habitat
fragmentation
and alteration
due to the effects
of development,
competition and
disease from
exotic or non-native
plant and animal
species and pressures
from tourism
and recreational
facilities.”31
Parks Canada
admits that 38
out of Canada’s
39 national parks
are suffering
from serious
ecological stresses.32
Canada’s
OECD Ranking
With 9.6% of
Canada’s
land mass protected,
Canada places
13th out of 29
OECD nations,
below the OECD
average of 12.6%.
The United States,
New Zealand,
Austria, the
Czech Republic,
Denmark, France,
Germany, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands,
Norway, Switzerland
and the United
Kingdom have
protected a larger
proportion of
their national
territory than
Canada.
The
World Conservation
Union (IUCN)
has a classification
system for protected
areas that includes
six categories.
Categories I-III
are areas where
industrial resource
extraction activities
(mining, logging,
hydroelectric
dams, oil and
gas exploration)
are strictly
prohibited. Categories
IV-VI are areas
where looser
standards apply.
If one looks
at the percentage
of land in the
IUCN’s strict
conservation
categories, Canada’s
performance is
less impressive,
falling to 4.32%
protected. This
is largely because
many provinces
continue to allow
industrial activities
like logging,
mining and oil
and gas development
within protected
areas under their
jurisdiction.
Trends
Although the
OECD does not
provide historical
protected area
information,
Canada has made
significant strides
in recent decades
at both the federal
and provincial
levels. The percentage
of Canada that
is protected
has risen from
5.5% in the early
1980s to 9.6%
in the late 1990s.33
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