Parks Sector Overview

• Author: Elaine L. Hughes, Arlene J. Kwasniak, Alastair R. Lucas
• Pages: 273-292

273

CHAPTER 13

PARKS

SECTOR

OVERVIEW

Laura D Kumpf* and Elaine L Hughes

A. ABOUT PARKS

Canada is globally renowned for its parks. Canada’s f‌irst national park

was established in 1885 in Banff and was protected in the public inter-

est. In 1911, the world’s f‌irst national parks service was created, the

Dominion Parks Branch, now called Parks Canada. Between 1900 and

1920, Wood Buffalo National Park and Elk Island National Park were

created for the conservation of bison. In 1976, Nahanni National Park

became the world’s f‌irst UNESCO natural World Heritage Site.1 Can-

ada was also the f‌irst industrialized western nation to ratify the Con-

vention on Biological Diversity.2 The 1992 convention, which reaff‌irms

in its preamble the importance of biological diversity, also states, “the

fundamental requirement for the conservation of biological divers-

ity is the in-situ conservation of ecosystems and natural habitats and

the maintenance and recovery of viable populations of species in their

natural surroundings.” Article 8(a) of the convention states that each

* Laura Kumpf ( JD, Alberta) is a corporate law yer and associate in t he Edmonton

off‌ice of Miller Thomson L LP. She was a researc h assistant for this s ection during

her time as a law st udent at the University of Alber ta Faculty of Law.

1 Kevin McNamee, “Nat ional Parks of Canada,” online: H istorica Canada w ww.

thecanadianencyclop,edia.ca/en/article/national-parks-of-canada/.

2 Convention on Biologica l Diversity, 5 June 1992, 1760 UNTS 79, 31 ILM 818

(1992) (entered into force 29 December 1993). Note Canada wa s the f‌irst West-

ern industr ialized nation to rat ify.

PUBLIC LANDS AND RESOURCES LAW IN CA NADA274

party shall “est ablish a system of protected areas or area s where special

measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity.”

According to Natural Resources Canada, Canada currently has

8,500 protected areas, which is roughly 9.9 percent of its land base, 31

million hectares of which consists of forests and wooded areas, with

23.5 million hectares strictly protected.3 Further, “95% of protected

lands are within [International Union for Conservation of Nature] Cat-

egories I to IV, which largely prohibit industrial activities such as for-

est harvesting, mining and hydroelectric development.”4 In 1992, the

federal, territorial, and provincial governments made a commitment to

create a representative network of ecological regions under A Statement

of Commitment to Complete Canada’s Networks of Protected Areas.5

By 2009, they managed to create protected areas in twenty-eight out

of thirty-nine terrestrial regions but in only two out of twenty-nine

marine regions.6 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development has ranked Canada 70th globally for its ocean protec-

tion.7 The international target is to have 12 percent protected areas

while Canada has protected 10 percent. Over 60 percent are less than

10 square kilometres; as such Canada only ranks sixteen out of thirty

for areas protected but ranks four out of forty for strong protection

within the areas designated.8 However, some provinces, such as Brit-

ish Columbia, have met the 12 percent target. The United States has

doubled the international target by protecting 25 percent.9

The parks sector is unique in that it embodies an array of natural

resources, which gain protection depending on the type of park desig-

nation. Parks designations vary federally and provincially and fall on a

spectrum of being strictly protected to being not protected at all (open

for public use). David Boyd separates the designations as generally fall-

ing into four categories: parks, wilderness areas, ecological reserves,

3 Natural Resou rces Canada, “Protected A reas,” online: www.nrcan.gc.ca/ forests/

video/13549.

4 Ibid.

5 Philip Dearden, “P rogress and Problems in Ca nada’s Protected Areas: Over view

of Progress, C hronic Issues and Emergi ng Challenges in the Early 21st Cent ury”

in Meinhar d Doelle & Chris Tollefson, Environmental L aw: Cases and Materials

(Toronto: Carswell, 2009) at 375.

6 Bruce Mitchell, ed, Resource and En vironmental Management in Cana da: Ad-

dressing Conf‌lict and Uncerta inty, 4th ed (Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford Un iversity

Press Can ada, 2004) at 330.

7 Fisheries an d Oceans Canada, Spotlight on Mar ine Protected Areas in Canada (Ot-

tawa: Fisher ies and Oceans Canad a, 2010) at 3.

8 Mitchell, above note 6 at 331.

9 Mitchell, ibid at 330.