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Alberta • Protected Areas • Lands and Regulations • Issues & AdvocacyThis data was accurate as of April 2008.
Page Index
Land Description:
Brief
History:
(prior to initiation of land use plan and development) In 1992, the Canadian Parks Ministers Council signed A Statement of Commitment to Complete Canada’s Networks of Protected Areas, by the year 2000. In November 1992, at the Tri-Council meeting of federal and provincial parks, environment and wildlife ministers, the draft document for Special Places 2000: Alberta’s Natural Heritage was tabled. The Special Places initiative had four goals: preservation, heritage protection, outdoor recreation and heritage tourism. In 1994, the Whitehorse Mining Initiative was signed to provide a strategic vision for a healthy mining industry in the context of maintaining healthy and diverse ecosystems in Canada. Among other things it called for establishing an ecologically based system of protected areas. Representatives of five sectors agreed to participate. They were the mining industry, senior governments, labour unions, Aboriginal peoples, and the environmental community. A report from the Land Access Issue group was released in 1994.
Process
of Development/Consultation Type: The Special Places 2000 Advisory Committee Report was released in 1994 and public comments were received. Albertans and stakeholder groups from across the province contributed directly to the development of this plan. On March 28, 1995, recommendations and policy to
complete a network of protected areas were tabled with the government
and the Special Places 2000 policy and the implementation plan was
announced.
PAS
Implementation and Candidate PA selection process: A multi-stakeholder Special Places Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) was appointed to review public nominations, provide overall direction for the program and advise on candidate sites for detailed consideration through a local committee process. The PCC represented the broad interests of Albertans and included representatives from over twenty stakeholder groups, including local governments, industry and environmental organizations. The Special Places Provincial Coordinating Committee successfully completed its mandate on March 26, 1999 after identifying and recommending candidate sites for local committee review in all of the natural regions. New sites were established under existing legislative or policy options.
Results: In July, 2001, Special Places concluded. Under the program 81 new and 13 expanded protected areas – wildland provincial parks, ecological reserves, provincial parks and natural areas, were added to bring the total protection in the province to 8.25 million hectares or 12.5% of the province’s land 2005. The goal of 8.1 million additional hectares has been reached, however, only 60% of the full representation of the diversity of landscapes set for each of the 167 natural history theme sites has been met. As a specific example, in the Canadian Shield Natural Region, from two ecological reserves in 1992, preservation has increased to over 170,000ha with six additional wildlands, based on recommendations of a local committee consisting of NGO’s, industry, local government officials and First Nation representatives.
First Nations
Land Claim
Settlements: The Smith’s Landing First Nation (also in the Northwest Territories) has agreed to a treaty land settlement with most of the land claim of approximately 8,700ha being granted in Alberta. The First Nations in Alberta were very active and supportive on some of the local land use planning committees. Where there was no First Nation representation on a committee, attempts were always made to include them in the consultation.
Post-Completion and
Ongoing Issues:
Government Departments, Agencies
and Legislation, for further information:
Sustainable Resource Development (Public Land) www.srd.gov.ab.ca/
Environment (Land Management) www.environment.alberta.ca/
Energy (Minerals) www.energy.gov.ab.ca/
Non-governmental organizations
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