Alberta’s environment minister has expanded the province’s definition of “protected lands” in a bid to reject Ottawa’s nature strategy.<\/p>\n
This comes after Canada, along with 195 other countries, announced plans to protect 30 per cent of its land by 2030, an objective known as 30×30.<\/p>\n
But Grant Hunter, Alberta\u2019s minister of environment and protected areas, said in a press release that the province already protects 60 per cent of its land based on its own definition.<\/p>\n
\u201cFederal reporting measures do not capture the full picture, focusing on narrow definitions of protected land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlberta takes a different approach. Our province includes all publicly owned and regulated lands, including those protected from development.\u201d<\/p>\n
To reach the 30×30 goal, Canada intends to protect an additional 1.6 million square kilometres of land over the next four years, through $3.8 billion in federal investments alongside private sector funding.<\/p>\n
Alberta rejects Ottawa’s one-size-fits-all approach to conservation and expects recognition and provincial jurisdiction of all national conservation targets, Hunter said.<\/p>\n
Defining protected<\/p>\n
Alberta\u2019s claim to have already achieved the 30×30 commitment is \u201cconcerning\u201d and \u201cdisingenuous,\u201d said Kecia Kerr, the executive director of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Northern Alberta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can have issues with a certain target, but Canada has committed to this goal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Under the federal definition, protected areas are limited to those prioritizing conservation including national and provincial parks, wildlife areas and Indigenous protected and controlled areas.<\/p>\n
However, Hunter\u2019s statement said protected lands in Alberta now include Crown land owned by the province used for commercial forestry, oil and gas exploration and mining.<\/p>\n
Despite this, CPAWS reports that 15 per cent of Alberta\u2019s land is formally classified as protected, much lower than the 60 per cent claimed by Hunter earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Views from the ground<\/p>\n
Cliff Wallis, a professional biologist registered in Alberta, said defining public land as protected does not reflect what is happening on the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re just going to say \u2018it’s protected,\u2019 but you allow new helium development, oil and gas development, or forestry, it’s a meaningless term,\u201d said Wallis.<\/p>\n
Alberta\u2019s conservation history can be described as a “roller coaster,” said Wallis. He recalls the era of former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, who was elected in 1971 on a platform that included protecting areas like Kananaskis Country.<\/p>\n
He said that at the time, the door between scientists and the government was open.<\/p>\n
Wallis describes the relationship today as a “devolution into non-leadership” and “outright hostility” toward traditional conservation. He pointed to the grasslands and parklands \u2014 some of the most endangered ecosystems in Canada \u2014 where less than 2 per cent of the land is protected by Alberta\u2019s own reporting standards in 2024.<\/p>\n
Wildlife as a barometer<\/p>\n
While politicians debate definitions, the real barometer for conservation success lies in the species and ecosystems, said Justina Ray, president and senior scientist of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are alarm bells for grassland birds that are declining, for amphibians and reptiles… and caribou are hanging on,\u201d said Ray, noting that caribou populations have suffered from the cumulative effect of seismic lines that cause deforestation.<\/p>\n
We all need nature\u00a0– Justina Ray, president and senior scientist of Wildlife Conservation Society Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile there is plenty of great nature in Alberta, there are still signs of major pressures and that biodiversity itself is suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr said she\u2019s glad to see the federal government commit $3.8 billion over the course of the next four years to conservation, but noted it\u2019s a funding cut.<\/p>\n
Those cuts, supplemented by funds from philanthropic organizations and private industry, may pose conflicts of interests, Kerr said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it’s private companies that are investing in nature there’s gonna have to be some sort of economic return for them in order for them to make it make sense to their stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray said the federal announcement mentioned nature’s importance for security, sovereignty, human well-being and the economy. She said that makes it hard to understand why the objectives of strategy would be \u201coffensive to any jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all need nature in some form or another,\u201d Ray said. \u201cSo trying to figure out how to safeguard it while we’re in the midst of our other aspirations would be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta’s environment minister has expanded the province’s definition of “protected lands” in a bid to reject Ottawa’s nature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,2862,17,2856,2861,2853,2858,2857,2863,2855,2854,2860,2859],"class_list":{"0":"post-4543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-alberta-premier","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cliff-wallis","12":"tag-environment-minister","13":"tag-grant-hunter","14":"tag-justina-ray","15":"tag-kecia-kerr","16":"tag-nature","17":"tag-northern-alberta","18":"tag-protected-areas","19":"tag-protected-lands","20":"tag-provincial-jurisdiction"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}