Assessment and Planning to Meet Protected Areas Targets

Recommendation 1

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada establish a permanent national conservation body consisting of federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous representatives that will lead planning to meet the Aichi targets as well as setting and implementing overarching longer-term conservation plans. In order to facilitate the work of this body, the Committee further recommends:

• That a national stakeholder advisory group to advise the conservation body be established representing, among others, municipal governments, civil society, private landowners, conservation specialists, industry, academics and Indigenous groups; and
• That a process be put in place through which individuals, in particular Indigenous peoples, or organizations may suggest priority areas for protection.

Recommendation 2

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada lead a science-based, whole-of-Canada, terrestrial and marine, conservation assessment in partnership with the provinces and territories, Indigenous people, municipalities‎ and other stakeholders.

The assessment should look to the integration of greater protected area ecosystems, identify priority areas and important connection corridors to ensure a sustainable ecosystem, maintain our biodiversity and develop appropriate targets for Canada.

Recommendation 3

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada:

• Undertake an assessment of Canada’s freshwater ecosystems and set specific targets for the conservation of important rivers, wetlands, lakes and their biodiversity; and
• Protect freshwater rivers, wetlands, lakes and their biodiversity by introducing legislation that mirrors the United States’ Wild and Scenic Rivers legislation or South Africa’s freshwater conservation goals.

Recommendation 4

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada focus the expansion of protected areas not only on quantity to meet Aichi 11 targets, but also to protect terrestrial and marine areas with the highest ecological value in the country.

Recommendation 5

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada set even more ambitious targets for protected areas than those established in the Aichi Target 11.

Recommendation 6

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada develop a “corridors of connectivity” and “buffer zone” strategy to protect and enhance ecologically valuable networks of protected areas and regions on the periphery of protected areas.

Recommendation 7

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada ensure efforts focus on the addition of meaningful terrestrial and marine areas and not simply count existing programs and protected areas to meet Aichi 11 Targets.

Recommendation 8

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada accelerate data collection for inventory management of protected areas. This could include the creation of a complementary conservation database where individuals and groups could upload data independently as part of a national collection of other effective area-based conservation measures above and beyond Canada’s Aichi targets.

Recommendation 9

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada, in partnership with the provinces and territories, Ducks Unlimited Canada and other non-governmental organizations, support the completion of the Canadian Wetland Inventory.

Federal Implementation and Coordination

Recommendation 10

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada create a federal protected areas system plan that incorporates not just national parks but all federal protected areas, terrestrial and marine.

Recommendation 11

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada take a whole-of-government approach towards contributing to national conservation commitments and targets and that all departments be encouraged to participate in conservation efforts by being made aware of the benefits of protected areas to regional development.

Recommendation 12

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada coordinate its efforts and work collaboratively between departments and agencies to expand the network of marine protected areas.

Recommendation 13

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada ensure that government-sponsored activities within protected areas adequately take into consideration their potential impact on landowners in the adjacent landscape.

Recommendation 14

The Committee recommends that Parks Canada Agency revisit its system plans and that in the interim, it does not reject protected area proposals simply because they do not fit within the current system plans. As an example, updated system plans could account for corridors, buffers and climate change.

Recommendation 15

The Committee recommends that Parks Canada Agency consider developing a national urban parks system plan to act as a framework to guide the creation of urban parks as opportunities arise with willing municipal and provincial partners.

Recommendation 16

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada expand work being done in collaboration with other countries, particularly those within our hemisphere and with which we share migratory wildlife, in order to achieve common conservation objectives.

Recommendation 17

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada fully implement and enforce the Species at Risk Act while also focussing on achieving the objectives of the Act through enhanced conservation initiatives.

Recommendation 18

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada ensure that the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals is applied to any proposal to acquire or to dispose of federal lands, such as the transfer of 700,000 hectares of native grasslands in 62 community pastures to the Government of Saskatchewan. Another example is the Department of National Defence’s proposed disposal of lands including Royal Roads University. In addition, no federal land should be disposed of unless it has been established that the proposed disposal would not be contrary to national conservation objectives.

Recommendation 19

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada lead an effort to determine the capacity of Canada’s natural spaces to release and sequester carbon and to evaluate the potential for increasing their capacity to sequester carbon.

Protection in Indigenous Traditional Areas: Conservation and Beyond

Recommendation 20

The Committee recommends that, in partnership with Indigenous peoples, the Government of Canada establish a national program of Indigenous guardians, who are community-based land and water stewards managing lands and waters using cultural traditions and modern conservation tools. The program should support sustainable livelihoods and protected areas operations. All Indigenous peoples should have the opportunity to participate in the program.

Recommendation 21

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada pursue common conservation objectives and reconciliation through a nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous peoples. More particularly, the Government of Canada should:

• In partnership with Indigenous peoples, pursue the expansion of federal protected areas to protect areas of highest ecological value within traditional territories of Indigenous peoples;
• Implement and respect co-management arrangements with Indigenous partners for federal protected areas in Indigenous traditional territories;
• Establish a federal point of contact with decision-making authority to facilitate negotiations for federal protected areas in Indigenous traditional territories; and
• Work with Indigenous peoples to designate and manage Indigenous protected areas within their traditional territories, and incorporate these areas into Canada’s inventory of protected areas by amending applicable legislation, for example the Canada Wildlife Act.

Recommendation 22

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada place a priority on collaborating with Indigenous peoples, Northern governments and stakeholders to protect highest ecological value arctic waters for traditional uses and future generations.

Accelerating Establishment of Protected Areas and Ensuring Sufficient Levels of Protection

Recommendation 23

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada expeditiously introduce a bill to formally legislate protection for all federal lands that Parks Canada currently manages, where appropriate.

Recommendation 24

The Committee recommends that Fisheries and Oceans ‎Canada explore more effective and innovative mechanisms to expedite protection for marine and coastal areas.

Recommendation 25

The Committee recommends that Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada consider opportunities to designate multiple protected areas concurrently.

Recommendation 26

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada confirm minimum conservation standards of protection for each category of federal protected area to meet accepted international standards.

Recommendation 27

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada ensure that no federal policy or legislation, such as the Mineral and Energy Resource Assessment and the Canada Petroleum Resources Act, slows the process of establishing protected areas. Further, no federal policy or legislation should impinge on minimum standards of protection established for that type of federal protected area, such as in the case of Sable Island National Park Reserve.

Recommendation 28

The Committee recommends that Parks Canada Agency adhere to existing limits placed on development as outlined in legislation or in management plans, guidelines and policy. Development proposals as well as any changes to existing limits should be subject to a transparent and publicly inclusive decision-making process. Municipalities within park boundaries should have more flexibility to make certain decisions – such as allocate business licences – within their existing footprints and limits.

Recommendation 29

The Committee recommends that Environment and Climate Change Canada, Parks Canada and Fisheries and Oceans develop relevant management plans to ensure that the protected areas under their jurisdiction will fulfill their intended purposes as refuges for biodiversity. These management plans should be updated on a regular basis in order to effectively address emerging threats to ecological integrity, and departments must be given sufficient budgetary resources to implement these plans.

Recommendation 30

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada amend and strengthen the National Marine Conservation Areas Act and the Oceans Act in order to:

• Enable interim protection of national marine conservation areas before they are formally established, subject to pre-existing legal rights of others;
• Specify a shortened timeframe for the development and implementation of a national network of marine protected areas; and
• Enshrine the restoration and maintenance of ecological integrity as the overriding priority for Canada’s marine conservation areas in parallel with the Canada National Parks Act.

Recommendation 31

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada develop, implement and sufficiently fund effective monitoring programs in order to measure the successful achievement of ecological integrity of protected areas.

Recommendation 32

The Committee recommends that when possible, the Government of Canada partner with provincial, municipal, territorial or other governments to protect terrestrial and marine areas using internationally recognized standardized criteria. In particular, the Committee recommends that the Government of Canada – for the purposes of assessing its progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and regardless of ownership (federal, provincial/territorial, Indigenous, private or other) – adopt and apply the definition of “other effective area-based conservation measures” determined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and hold all Canadian protected areas not included in the IUCN’s protected areas categories to this minimum standard.

Funding

Recommendation 33

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada place a greater priority on and dedicate a larger amount of resources to meeting our Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 commitment by 2020, while recognizing that this is a minimum target.

Recommendation 34

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada provide consistent, predictable, ongoing funding to all protected area programs under its jurisdiction and should regularly undertake analyses to assess whether the funding is sufficient to achieve Canada’s conservation objectives.

Recommendation 35

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider innovative funding and other mechanisms to support and expand conservation and protected areas, including:

• By examining ways – including compensation – by which it can partner with provinces and territories to further support and encourage ranchers, farmers and other private land owners to implement conservation measures;
• By providing incentives to landowners to donate ecologically sensitive lands for conservation purposes by permitting the intergenerational transfer of any unused tax credits to an inheriting landowner on the death of the donor to realize the benefit of a conservation gift as part of intergenerational estate planning;
• By assessing the feasibility of introducing an initiative similar to the U.S. Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network that would bring governmental and non-governmental stakeholders together to work on designated conservation objectives;
• By establishing a dedicated acquisition fund for federal protected areas;
• By considering the creation of a new component of the Natural Areas Conservation Program to fund conservation initiatives of community organizations;
• By reporting to the House of Commons on best practices to encourage, incentivize and recognize the willing relinquishment of acquired mineral, oil, gas or logging rights;
• By examining the possibility of expanding the Green Municipal Fund, with its federal funds managed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities;
• By establishing a distinct and significant envelope of funding for conservation initiatives and associated infrastructure with a view to regional economic development; and
• By exploring financial and non-financial incentives for Canadians to support expanded conservation efforts in Canada.

Recommendation 36

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada ensure that current and future levels of investment to maintain capital assets within the national parks system meet commonly recommended asset investment benchmarks and that any shortfall in levels of investment to maintain assets within existing parks not be a barrier to providing funding for new park establishment.