FEATURES SOUL OF THE

Canada Increases Wilderness Protection and Policy Goals

BY HARVEY LOCKE

he years 2007 and 2008 have seen major advances Because Canada is the second largest country on Earth, and in wilderness protection in Canada at the level of at least 90% of it has some aspect of public ownership, such Tboth policy and outcomes. Led by the Canadian an agenda is of global significance. Boreal Initiative and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, calls for protecting at least half of Canada’s public Protect “At Least Half” of the Boreal Forest lands and waters are starting to take hold in public policy. The public goal of protecting at least half of Canada’s vast

Figure 1—Cirque of the Unclimbables in the Nahanni Park expansion area. Photo by Harvey Locke.

4 International Journal of Wilderness APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1 boreal forest was first articulated in 2003 through the Boreal Conservation Framework led by the Canadian Boreal Initiative. Its founding signatories were conservation groups (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, World Wildlife Fund—Canada, and Ducks Unlimited), some First Nations, and a few enlightened industrial players. To give a sense of scale, Canada’s boreal forest is 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million sq. mi.) in size and con- tains 25% of the world’s remaining intact primary forest (Bryant et al. 1997). It contains enormous blocks of roadless wilderness bigger than many countries, vast free-flowing rivers, mil- lions of acres of wetlands, and is home Figure 2—Dumoine River in Quebec. Photo by Harvey Locke. to grizzly bears and caribou, as well as millions of migratory songbirds and waterfowl. About 600 aboriginal com- Co-op, Canada’s largest outdoor resentation of natural ecosystems. munities are located in it (many retailer, joined forces with CPAWS to Representation is the basis of the fed- without year-round road access), and launch “the Big Wild,” a public eral government’s plan to complete many people pursue traditional subsis- engagement project designed to pro- Canada’s national park system. In tence harvesting activities. It is also mote the idea of protecting at least 1990, the Endangered Spaces cam- home to some of the largest hydroelec- half of Canada’s areas with wilderness paign set a goal of representing at least tric projects on Earth (e.g., province of characteristics. 12% of each of Canada’s natural Quebec), the world’s second largest oil Canada is a country with provin- regions by the year 2000. The cam- deposit (’s tar sands), a large cial control over large areas of natural paign did not meet its goals forestry industry, and globally signifi- resources and federal control over nav- everywhere, but made material prog- cant mineral deposits ranging from igable waters and oceans and some ress in British Columbia, Alberta, nickel to iron ore to diamonds. In lands in the north. In addition, there Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia 2003, there were only a few really large are variety of different title arrange- and was successful moving the national protected areas present in the boreal ments relating to aboriginal groups level of protection up from 2.9% to forest, such as Wood Buffalo National and their use and ownership of lands. 6.8% of the land area in 10 years Park, Alberta and Northwest Territories Thus, nature conservation is done by (MacNamee 2008). (44,802 sq km; 17,298 sq. mi.), and different levels of government, However, during the same period, the Muskwa Kechika Management depending on where the areas are and conservation science demonstrated that Area in northern British Columbia who has jurisdiction. representing natural systems was only (6.3 million ha; 15.5 million acres). This target of “at least half” is one of the components that effective In 2005, the Canadian Parks and materially more ambitious than systems need to consider. Wilderness Society (CPAWS) adopted previous conservation targets that Protected area systems also need to be the goal of protecting at least half of were set with a view to achieving rep- connected in order to protect Canada’s public lands and waters, which includes not only the boreal Calls for protecting at least half of Canada’s forest, but also Arctic, freshwater, and marine areas in the north and other public lands and waters are starting to take hold natural ecosystems farther south. In in public policy. 2008, the Mountain Equipment

APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1 International Journal of Wilderness 5 On November 25, 1992, the Ministers of the Environment of every province and the Canadian federal government (no matter what their political affiliation) signed a declara- tion entitled a “Statement of Commitment to Complete Canada’s Networks of Protected Areas,” which included the following language: On the occasion of Canada’s 125th anniversary, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, the Canadian Parks Ministers’ Council, and the Wildlife Ministers’ Council of Canada have come together to recognize that: Canada’s natural heritage—its

Figure 3—Otoskwin River in northern Ontario. Photo by Harvey Locke. wildlands, waters and wildlife— unites and defines us all as Canadians. Canada has a special wide-ranging species, to provide secure Canada has centred on the wilder- global responsibility to protect its breeding and rearing areas for wildlife, ness. ... This is because wilderness to natural heritage given that Canada is and to be of sufficient size to absorb us is more than just empty space out steward of almost 20% of the natural disturbance events such as fire there: it is part of every Canadian’s planet’s wilderness (excluding and flooding without losing all existing idea of himself and his country. Even Antarctica), 20% of its fresh water, habitat (Locke 2009). By the 21st cen- if he has never been out of down- and 24% of its remaining wetlands. tury, it was clear that the level of town Montreal or suburban (Canadian Council of Ministers of protection needed to be moved up to Vancouver, in his imagination he the Environment, Canadian Parks the landscape scale with interconnected belongs to a place of thundering Ministers’ Council, Wildlife networks of protected areas containing rivers, untrodden forests, spacious Ministers’ Council of Canada. 1992) at least half of the natural systems plains, sublime icefloes, and untamed (Schmiegelow et al. 2006). Interestingly, animals. Without the land, what Although Canada is very urban- this scientific research corresponded to would we be? (1972, pp. 13–14) ized, it also has many one-industry public research findings that showed towns with resource extraction econo- Canadians wanted even more than half Canada’s visual arts have strong mies based on logging, mining, or oil of the boreal forest protected ties to the wilderness and the vastness and gas. At the same time, there is a (McAllister Opinion Research 2008). of the land is a point of national pride. large wilderness outfitting industry in Political leaders often refer to the spe- Canada. The Canadian relationship Canadian Relationship with cial role wilderness plays in the with wilderness is complex and Wilderness Canadian psyche. For example, Liberal ambiguous. Canadians have a deep and nuanced Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who was Canada’s Canadians tend to equate any relationship with the wilderness. prime minister in the 1970s and a pas- form of protected area designation Wilderness experiences of high quality sionate wilderness canoeist, wrote in with wilderness protection and biodi- are available close to every major city 1944: “I know a man whose school versity conservation. In Canada, there except Toronto (and even there it is could never teach him patriotism but is not a wilderness act of broad national only three to four hours of travel who acquired that skill when he felt in application, although there are some away). James Polk in Wilderness his bones the vastness of his land, and specifically designated wilderness areas Writers wrote: the greatness of those who founded it” under specific laws. Certain landscapes From the beginning writing in (Trudeau 1970, p. 5). such as Banff National Park and

6 International Journal of Wilderness APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1 Algonquin Provincial Park are national icons. In 2004, CPAWS and the Dehcho First Nations mounted a high visibility national campaign calling for the protection of another iconic land- scape—the South Nahanni watershed. The heightened global public con- cern about climate change in 2006 provided a major catalyst for wilder- ness conservation in Canada. This is due, in part, to the fact that Canada’s boreal and Arctic biomes are huge storehouses of terrestrial carbon (Luyssaert et al. 2008) and more sig- nificant for carbon storage than tropical forests (Mackey et al. 2008). Leaving the wetlands, peatlands, and tundra intact is both a first order climate change mitigation and an adaptation strategy. Canada’s performance on meeting its environmental targets under the Kyoto protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been very poor because it is a globally significant pro- ducer of oil and gas, has vast coal reserves, and has a very large automo- bile industry. Nature conservation is one way for Canada to get closer to its environmental targets.

Increased Public Policy to Protect Wilderness The net result of these combined fac- tors has been a major surge in wilderness conservation in Canada in 2007 and 2008, and there are exam- ples from various jurisdictions across the country. • The first area to achieve protec- Figure 4—Grizzly bear and wolf tracks along the Snake River in the Yukon. Photo by Harvey Locke. tion of at least half of its land area was the Queen Charlotte Islands, the traditional territory of the comanagement. Many years of agreement, the Great Bear Haida people. Half of the vast campaigning by NGOs bore fruit Rainforest in a conservation temperate rain forests of these in 2007 when the federal govern- matrix that covers an area of 8.75 Pacific Islands are receiving pro- ment joined the province of million hectares (21.6 million tection through a combination of British Columbia, First Nations, acres) and created 110 “conser- national park and provincial des- and some philanthropists to pro- vancies” in about one-third of the ignations that involve aboriginal tect, through a complex written area. Steps remain to fulfill all

APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1 International Journal of Wilderness 7 aspects of the agreement, such as 18,000 sq km (6,950 sq. mi.). minster Stephen Harper’s speech at the conservancy management plan- • Manitoba finally moved in 2008 Bonn 2008 meeting of the Convention ning, the enactment of biodiversity to eliminate all logging from its on Biological Diversity reflect the cur- areas, and establishing a regional considerable park network (with rent national mood in Canada: plan for conservation outside of one exception). I’d like to conclude with a protected areas (www.savethegreat- • The most spectacular wilderness quotation by the Pulitzer Prize– bear.org). conservation event was the winning author Wallace Stegner. • After years of work by NGOs, the announcement by Premier Stegner evoked the beauty and federal government, with the Dalton McGuinty of Ontario in tranquility of the Canadian Prairies agreement of aboriginal commu- July 2008 that at least half of in a way that in my opinion has nities, moved to protect on an that province’s vast Far North never been surpassed. In 1960, long interim basis several very large would be protected. A land use before environmentalism became a areas in the Northwest Territories, planning process is being devel- galvanizing public issue, Stegner including almost all of the spec- oped with that policy at the urged us to conserve and protect tacular watershed of the South center and with a goal of about biodiversity in a famous tract called Nahanni River (36,400 sq km; 225,000 sq km (86,873 sq. mi.) his Wilderness Letter. Let me quote 14,054 sq. mi.), the Ramparts of boreal forest, wetlands, and from it. He said: “We need wilder- Wetlands (15,000 sq km; 5,792 tundra being protected. ness preserved—as much of it as is sq. mi.), the East Arm of Great • In November 2008, during the still left and as many kinds—because Slave Lake (26,350 sq km; 10,174 provincial election campaign, it was the challenge against which sq. mi.); and Sahoyue Ehdacho which his party won, Quebec pre- our character was formed.” Ladies was also permanently protected mier Jean Charest promised to and gentlemen, the preservation of (5,550 sq km; 2,143 sq. mi.). protect at least half of Quebec our wilderness today and into the future is the challenge against which Wilderness conservation has tended to come in our character will be measured. (Harper 2008) waves that correspond strongly to periods when civil society has been engaged in advancing a Alas, not all governmental juris- dictions in Canada are performing at public agenda in favor of conservation. an acceptable level when it comes to wilderness conservation. Noted lag- • The province of Nova Scotia north of the 49th parallel. This gards in adopting new policy and passed a law in 2007 requiring area would amount to 70% of the initiatives are the Yukon Territory, protection of at least 12% of the province, and the area protected Nunavut, and New Brunswick; the province, it created a new wilder- would cover an area about the size federal government’s record in marine ness area near Halifax, and it of France. conservation is also very poor. appropriated funds to buy private Wilderness conservation in forestlands for public wilderness Perhaps the most encouraging Canada does not happen solely at the protection. aspect of the recent surge in wilderness behest of enlightened governments. • The federal government protection in Canada has been a fairly Wilderness conservation has tended to announced plans to make a very broad public consensus that landscape come in waves that correspond strongly large “marine” conservation area conservation at a major scale needs to to periods when civil society has been in Lake Superior. be implemented. In the 2008 federal engaged in advancing a public agenda • Quebec moved from less than 1% election campaign, both the Liberals in favor of conservation (Locke 2009). protection in 2000 to more than and Greens adopted the goal of pro- Whether all these recent announce- 6% protection (mostly on an tecting at least 50% of the land area, ments will result in permanent interim basis) in 2008. Quebec is and the Conservatives committed to protection of these vast areas of Canada almost as big as Alaska, and each completing the national park system. percentage point of Quebec is about These words from Conservative prime Continued on page 14

8 International Journal of Wilderness APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1 Tucson, Arizona: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association. Hope lies with the local constituencies who Kupfer, J. A., J. Balmat, and J. L. Smith.2005. Shifts in the potential distribution of sky are currently beginning to redefine how land island plant communities in response to climate change. In Connecting Mountain and wildlife conservation must act and react Islands and Desert Seas: Biodiversity and Management of the Madrean to the growing pressures upon the land. Archipelago II, comp. Gerald J. Gottfried, Brooke S. Gebow, Lane G. Eskew, and Carleton B. Edminster. pp. 485-490. RMRS-P-36. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Warshall, P. 1994. The Madrean Sky Island Tech. Rep. RM-GTR-264. Fort Collins, Department of Agriculture, Forest archipelago: A planetary Overview. In CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Service, Rocky Mountain Research Biodiversity and Management of the Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest Station. Madrean Archipelago: The Sky Islands and Range Experiment Station. Marshall, J. 1957. Birds of the Pine Oak of Southwestern United States and Woodland in Southern Arizona and Northwestern Mexico, tech. coord. MATT SKROCH is the executive director of Adjacent Mexico. Cooper Ornithological Leonard F. DeBano, Peter F. Ffoliott, Society. Pacific Coast Avifauna No. 32. Alredo Ortega-Rubio, Gerald J. Gotfried, the Sky Island Alliance, P.O. Box 41165, Accessed January 2009: http://elibrary. Robert H. Hamre, and Carleton B. Tucson, AZ 85745, USA; website: www.sky- unm.edu/sora. Edminster (pp. 6–18). Mexico. Gen. islandalliance.org.

Continued from CANADIAN POLICY GOALS, page 8 will likely be dependent, in part, on Protected Areas: Proceedings of 40th McGuinty, Dalton. 2008. Protecting the Anniversary Parks for Tomorrow northern boreal region, www.premier. whether members of civil society act to Conference. , Alberta: University gov.on.ca (accessed December 2008). ensure that the various governments of Calgary Press. Polk, James. 1972. Wilderness Writers. follow through on their recent inspiring Luyssaert, Sebastiaan, E., Detlef Schulze, Toronto, Ontario: Clarke, Irwin. Annett Borner, Alexander Knohl, Schmiegelow, F.K.A, S. G. Cumming, S. promises. IJW Dominik Hessenmoller, Beverly E. Law, Harrison, S. Leroux, K. Lugo, R. Noss, Philippe Ciais, and John Grace. 2008. and B. Olson. 2006. Conservation Old-growth forests as global carbon Beyond Crisis Management: A References sinks. Nature 455: 213–15. Conservation Matrix Model, Beacons Bryant, Dirk, Daniel Nielsen, and Laura Mackey, Brendan, H. Keith, S. Berry, and D. Discussion Paper No. 1. Edmonton: Tangley. 1997. Last Frontier Forests: L. Lindenmayer. 2008. Green Carbon: University of Alberta. Ecosystems and Economies on the The Role of Natural Forests in Carbon Trudeau, P. E. 1970. Exhaustion and fulfill- Edge. Washington DC: World Storage. Part 1: A Green Carbon ment: The ascetic in a canoe. In Resources Institute. Account of Australia’s Southeastern Wilderness Canada, ed. B. Spears (pp. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Eucalypt Forest, and Policy Implications. 3-5). Toronto, Ontario: Clarke, Irwin. Environment, Canadian Parks Ministers’ Canberra: Australian National University Council, and Wildlife Ministers’ Council Press. of Canada. 1992. A statement of com- MacNamee, Kevin. 2008. Canada. In A HARVEY LOCKE is vice president for mitment to complete Canada’s Handbook on International Wilderness Conservation Strategy at the WILD networks of protected areas. Unpub- Law and Policy, ed. C. F. Kormos (pp. Foundation, senior advisor for conservation lished statement. 91-117. Golden, CO: Fulcrum to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Harper, Stephen. 2008. Prime Minister Publishing. Harper addresses UN Conference on McAllister Opinion Research. 2008. Society, and strategic advisor to the the Convention on Biological Diversity. Canadians and the Protection of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Unpublished speech, Bonn, Germany. Boreal Forest. Ottawa, Ontario: Initiative; email: [email protected]. Locke, Harvey. In press. Civil Society and Canadian Boreal Initiative.

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14 International Journal of Wilderness APRIL 2009 • VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1