Protected Areas Planning: Managing for Ecological Integrity?
In June 2006, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act (PPCRA) passed Third Reading in the Ontario Legislature and received Royal Assent. The Act, which replaced the Provincial Parks Act, modernizes the purpose and objectives for protected areas under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). Ontario’s protected area system is composed of 329 provincial parks and 292 conservation reserves, covering almost 94,000 km2.
The Act states that the first priority in all aspects of protected area planning and management shall be to maintain ecological integrity, “a condition in which biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems and the composition and abundance of native species and biological communities are characteristic of their natural regions and rates of change and ecosystem processes are unimpeded.”
This section of the Annual Report examines some of the implications of the new regulations under the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, reviews several recently approved protected area management plans, and evaluates how the mandate of ecological integrity is being applied to managing Ontario’s protected areas. (For a detailed discussion of each of these initiatives, please refer to 2007 Review of decision to make regulations under PPCRA, 2007 Review of decision about O'Donnell Point, and 2007 Review of decision on integrated management planning.)
The Regulatory Framework and Ecological Integrity
In September 2007, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, along with a set of seven supporting regulations, came into force. The regulations provide management direction, designate legal boundaries, set fees, administer work permits, and allow for specific exemptions for mechanized travel in wilderness class parks. Many of the provisions of these regulations were carried forward from the previous regulatory framework, a framework that did not address ecological integrity.
For example, the regulations do not include any specific protections for species at risk. MNR policy prohibits the hunting and trapping of all species at risk in all provincial parks, unless a special exemption is issued for species of special concern. However, subsequent MNR policy exempted the eastern wolf, a species of special concern, and allowed them to be hunted and trapped in provincial parks. These prohibitions and exemptions are not reflected in the PPCRA regulations or any legislation. The new regulations address some of the allowable and appropriate activities in provincial parks. However, the provisions often address only select activities as they apply to individual provincial parks, and do not establish a framework to screen the compatibility of such activities with the new legal mandate of ecological integrity.
Although the maintenance of ecological integrity is now the legal and scientific standard that MNR is required to employ, the regulations generally deal with the issue in an ad hoc manner. For example:
- Jet-skiing is prohibited in Algonquin and Sandbanks Provincial Parks, but the regulations are silent on its appropriateness in other provincial parks.
- ATVs and snowmobiles are generally prohibited in all provincial parks, unless the park superintendent is “of the opinion” that the maintenance of ecological integrity is not “impeded.” Some form of ATV use is currently allowed in 114 provincial parks and some form of snowmobiling is currently allowed in 135 provincial parks.
- Power boats are prohibited, except in the 95 provincial parks where exemptions have been granted.
- Aircraft landings are prohibited, except in the 73 provincial parks where exemptions have been granted.
One of the new regulations (O. Reg. 346/07) allows mechanized travel in wilderness class parks, despite the intent of the Act to maintain ecological integrity. The legal objective of wilderness class parks is “to protect large areas where the forces of nature can exist freely and visitors travel by non-mechanized means, except as may be permitted by regulation, while engaging in low-impact recreation to experience solitude, challenge and integration with nature.” Numerous exemptions in the regulation provide for this non-conforming use. For example, powerboat use is permitted in various areas in all but one wilderness class park. Furthermore, while the superintendent of a park is granted authority to establish conditions for mechanized travel, including consideration of the maintenance of ecological integrity, the regulations do not address how this consideration would be methodically assessed or whether the assessment would be included in the management direction of a park.
Despite the multitude of exemptions for non-conforming mechanized travel in the PPCRA regulations, it is MNR’s position that further exceptions, restrictions and refinements regarding mechanized travel can be made in the individual management plans for each protected area. For example, while the recently approved management plan for Woodland Caribou Provincial Park deems snowmobiling as “inconsistent with wilderness park policy” and directs its phase-out, other non-conforming activities are permitted to continue within the park.
- Planning for ecological integrity: the Temagami area
- Planning for ecological integrity: O'Donnell Point
Summary and ECO comment
The Temagami Area Park Management Plan and the O’Donnell Point Park Management Plan highlight several positive approaches taken by MNR to park planning. These approaches include collaborating extensively with local First Nations and taking a wider ecosystem perspective that considers lands adjacent to protected areas. However, despite these encouraging approaches, the ECO reminds MNR that its legal priority in planning and managing Ontario’s protected areas is now ecological integrity. As described above, the ECO is concerned that MNR sometimes gave secondary consideration to what should have been its first priority: maintaining the ecological integrity of protected areas.
MNR has an opportunity to safeguard ecological integrity in all protected areas by giving the issue top consideration in the development of new policies and regulations. The Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act requires MNR to prepare a new planning manual by September 2009 that details policy directions for provincial parks and conservation reserves. The ECO looks forward to reviewing the manual and assessing how MNR considers its new priority of ecological integrity.
The Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act states that recreational opportunities in protected areas should be “compatible” and “ecologically sustainable.” In accordance with this direction, the ECO believes that MNR should re-evaluate the appropriateness of allowed activities in protected areas and phase out inappropriate and non-conforming uses that compromise ecological integrity. Compliance with the principles, purpose, and objectives of the overriding legislation can be achieved through the development of new regulations and policies that support ecological integrity. Although MNR policy specifies deadlines for the phase-out of several non-conforming uses in provincial parks (e.g., commercial trapping and land use permits), these commitments are not reflected in the new regulations. The ECO reiterates a comment made in our 2006-2007 Annual Report that the phasing out of non-conforming activities should be reinforced by regulation and not left to the discretion of policy.
The Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act requires MNR to publicly release an assessment of the state of Ontario’s provincial parks and conservation reserves by the year 2012. This “state of the parks’ report” will include an assessment of the known threats to the ecological integrity of provincial parks and conservation reserves. The ECO expects the assessment to involve a review of non-conforming activities and the steps that MNR is taking to systematically address them. The ECO believes that MNR should ensure that it has allocated sufficient resources and compiled the necessary baseline information to support this assessment well in advance of the scheduled release of the report in four years’ time.
| This is an article from the 2007/08 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2008. "Protected Areas Planning: Managing for Ecological Integrity?." Getting to K(No)w, ECO Annual Report, 2007-08. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 68-73.
