By ensuring that our national parks are models of sound
environmental protection and management, Parks Canada is helping to
build the next generation of environmental stewards.
Alan Latourelle Chief Executive Officer Parks Canada Agency
© Parks Canada |
It gives me great satisfaction to introduce this set of stories that
showcase our ongoing efforts to protect ecological integrity in Canada's
national parks and national historic sites. These stories speak to the
dedication and commitment of Parks Canada's employees, who have
worked exceptionally hard, often with limited resources, to ensure that
our natural heritage is conserved for the benefit of all Canadians.
They also speak to the importance of the partnerships that Parks Canada
has forged with stakeholders, organizations, and Aboriginal communities
to achieve this all-important goal.
The challenges Parks Canada faces in improving Parks Canada Agency
and maintaining the ecological integrity of our national parks and national
historic sites are significant. When the Panel on the Ecological Integrity
of Canada's National Parks released its report in 2000, it painted
a frank, comprehensive and disturbing picture of the ecological condition
of our parks. The panel concluded that Canada's national parks
were threatened, and that urgent action was needed to bring them back
into good ecological health. This assessment has shaped Parks Canada's
corporate priorities over the past several years, and resulted in the
Agency receiving significant new funding to achieve its ecological integrity
goals.
We now have the resources we need to build on the success described
in these projects, and to employ the lessons we have learned from them
across our national parks, national marine conservation areas, and to
some extent, the national historic sites systems. The projects describe
some of the significant milestones we have reached on our ecological
integrity journey, including: making ecological integrity central to
park management; collaborating with Aboriginal peoples and allowing
them to practice traditional activities in national parks; developing
ecological integrity training programs for employees; increasing dialogue
with other levels of government and federal agencies to promote cooperative
ecological integrity activities; raising awareness of the ecological
integrity challenges facing national parks to engage Canadians in their
conservation; and initiating public education projects. We also set
new standards for park management plans, which now include long-term
ecological integrity visions, as well as ecological integrity objectives
and indicators.
The successes recounted in this publication are primarily focused on
collaborative efforts that have occurred between Parks Canada and our
stakeholders and partners. Choosing these showcase projects was not
easy. There are many other success stories from around the country that
are equally significant. However, these few examples provide a good
overview of the work being carried out in our national parks and national
historic sites.
We are very proud of our ongoing partnerships with provincial, territorial,
and municipal governments, and of how this collaboration has helped
to promote effective ecosystem-based management across administrative
boundaries. This strategy has led to the creation of biosphere reserves,
model forests and world heritage programs, as well as to initiatives
such as the Parks and People Program with Nature Canada and our Greater
Park Ecosystem Initiative. We have also worked with partners and stakeholders
on site restoration, species at risk initiatives, and the use of traditional
knowledge for better ecosystem management, among other projects.
The success we have enjoyed over the past several years in restoring
our national parks to good ecological health has depended, to a significant
degree, on the strong funding support we have received from the federal
government. With this support, we have been able to develop targeted
ecological integrity and species at risk projects, and we have had sufficient
flexibility to deal with the enormous challenges inherent in natural
resource management. We are also grateful to the many provincial and
territorial governments, academic and research institutions, non-governmental
conservation organizations, local and indigenous communities, industries
and thousands of volunteers who have invested their time and resources
in our parks.
Finally, I wish to thank the Parks Canada team for planning, implementing
and presenting these projects. I hope their inspiring projects will
serve as examples of best practices that will be applied widely both
within Canada and abroad.
This publication is organized into four main themes that reflect Parks
Canada's outlook on the business of ecosystem conservation: ecosystem
restoration, better park management, engaging Canadians, and regional
partnerships. We believe that our success depends on a careful mix of
science and partnerships, on truly engaging Canadians in our mandate,
and on ensuring memorable visitor experiences in order to foster a culture
of conservation in Canada.
Alan Latourelle
Chief Executive Officer
Parks Canada Agency