Nature Canada

Vote for Nature, part 3: Preserve Natural Areas

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Suffield National Wildlife Area. Photo: ateucher

The federal government is accountable to Canadians for permanently protecting natural areas, using a number of different legal tools known collectively as “protected areas”. Parks Canada establishes and manages a system of National Parks and National Marine Conservation Areas to permanently protect representative examples of each of Canada’s natural regions. Environment Canada manages National Wildlife Areas, Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, and Marine Wildlife Areas to protect important wildlife habitat across the country. The department of Fisheries and Oceans is responsible for Marine Protected Areas which protect significant marine ecosystems and important habitats for marine wildlife and species at risk. But there are problems.

We are still losing too much of Canada’s unique wild lands, waters, and oceans to our growing human footprint on the environment. Our National Parks system only covers 33 of Canada’s 68 terrestrial and marine natural regions. The job is only half done and as time goes on it is getting harder to establish parks in the remaining regions. Parks Canada does not have the resources needed to act fast enough to establish new parks while the best opportunities still exist. For example the March 2011 federal budget only provided 2% of the funding needed to meet the federal government’s commitment to establish new National Parks, according to the Green Budget Coalition.

Of course it is not enough to create protected areas on paper. Laws have to be enforced on the ground and on water. Several reviews have concluded that Canada’s protected areas are losing species and suffering environmental damage because of insufficient protection in practice. In fact oil and gas drilling has even been allowed in some National Wildlife Areas and other protected areas. This is obviously wrong. We also need these agencies to work together, and we need these protected areas to be linked together across the landscape.

Our federal government must provide enough money to the agencies we are all counting on to preserve natural areas for us and future generations. This includes $50 million per year for Parks Canada. The federal government must simply say no to oil and gas development in National Wildlife Areas and other protected areas.

Ask your candidates:

What will you do to protect more lands, waters, and oceans for nature and future generations?

How will you make sure nature is really protected in all federal parks and protected areas?

For more about the federal election visit Vote for Nature.

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