Background Paper on Land Access, Protected Areas and Sustainable Development
Introduction
Promoting sustainable development is an overarching objective of the federal government. Sustainable development has been defined, in the Guide to Green Government, as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Government of Canada, 1995b, p. 36). This definition is based on the Brundtland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). The sustainable development challenge is to make the definition operational in all aspects of human activity. As stated in Securing Our Future Together, this “means integrating social, economic, and environmental goals . . . It is also a matter of using natural, human, and economic resources responsibly and efficiently.”
Canada’s protected areas are geographically defined areas designed and managed to achieve specific conservation objectives. They are created to ensure representation of a natural region; to protect biodiversity, specific species or wildlife habitat; to preserve ecological integrity; and/or to ensure public access to outstanding natural areas for recreation and tourism. Activities in protected areas are controlled; certain activities may be prohibited, regulated or managed, depending on the conservation objectives of the area.
The minerals and metals industry requires access to a large part of the Canadian land base to explore for mineral deposits. In almost all cases, these deposits are hidden and difficult to find. The probability of any particular exploration program finding an economically viable mineral deposit is very low while the associated exploration costs can be very high. To increase the probability of success in finding a mineral deposit, the industry requires access to the largest amount of land possible. Once the exploration stage has been completed, mining uses relatively small areas of land, on a temporary basis, to recover mineral resources. However, the mine may require infrastructure in the form of road or rail access, air strips, power generation and transmission, all of which may increase people’s ability to access remote areas. Since mining first began in Canada over 100 years ago, less than 0.01% of Canada’s land area has been used for the production of minerals and metals (Intergovernmental Working Group on the Mineral Industry, 1993). Modern mining practices and regulations ensure that much of the land used for mining will be reclaimed for other uses.
Mineral exploration and development are prohibited or restricted in many types of protected areas. Initiatives to create protected areas can cause uncertainty for the mining industry because it is not always clear which areas are destined to become protected or what restrictions apply in an area. The amount of land closed to mineral exploration and development in Canada has risen over the last 30 years.
In Canada, protected areas are created for several reasons, including the representation of all types of natural regions and the protection of habitat for species at risk. The selection of the most suitable area is often restricted to a few choices, namely those that contain the features to be represented or the habitat requiring protection. The decisionmaking processes for creating protected areas must also deal with the concerns of all interested parties, including First Nations and natural resource industries.
Land access for the minerals and metals industry has, for several years, been cited as a major impediment to mineral investment across Canada (Intergovernmental Working Group on the Mineral Industry, 1993; House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, 1994). The need for protected areas to represent all natural regions has also been identified as a priority since 1990 (Green Plan), and reiterated in many documents, including the Whitehorse Mining Initiative Leadership Council Accord.
The Accord, signed in September 1994, was the result of a multi-stakeholder process to develop a common vision and strategic plan to move toward “a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable and prosperous mining industry, underpinned by political and community consensus” (Whitehorse Mining Initiative, 1994a, p. 5). It includes 16 principles and 70 goals dealing with, amongst other topics, protected areas, land access, regulatory reform, and sustainable development. Stakeholders who participated in this process and signed the Accord included federal, provincial and territorial governments, business, Aboriginal groups, environmentalists, and labour.
The importance of both protected areas and land access was also identified in Creating Opportunity. Its commitments included the protection in a natural state of at least 12% of Canada’s land, and providing Canada’s natural resource industries with greater certainty by coordinating a system of land access. The commitment towards increasing certainty through a system of land access was repeated in the Liberal Mining Agenda. In the 1996 Speech from the Throne, the Government reiterated commitments to seeking agreements with provincial and territorial governments and with First Nations to establish new national parks and marine conservation areas.
The Minerals and Metals Policy of the Government of Canada: Partnerships for Sustainable Development (Natural Resources Canada, 1996) recognizes both the important contribution of mining to the Canadian economy and the essential contributions to Canada’s environmental health, biological diversity and ecological processes made by protected areas. In this context, it affirms the Government’s commitments to complete the federal network of national parks by the year 2000, to identify and protect terrestrial and marine critical wildlife habitat, to identify and protect ocean ecosystems and the resources they contain, and to develop and implement protected area strategies for federal lands and waters.
The completion of the National Parks System by the year 2000, the establishment of new marine conservation areas, the development of legislation and policies for a marine conservation system, and the protection of threatened species are commitments in Securing Our Future Together. At the same time, expanding opportunity for jobs and growth in an innovation-based economy and developing a new ethic of cooperation and partnership between governments and the private sector are also commitments in the same document.
Purpose Of The Paper
Industry and investors need certainty and access to land to find and develop mineral deposits whose development contributes to Canada’s economic objectives. At the same time, protecting biodiversity, preserving ecological integrity, and ensuring representation of Canada’s natural regions are required to meet environmental objectives. Canadians want jobs and the benefits of economic growth, but they also require opportunities to experience nature, to enjoy the beauty and diversity of Canadian landscapes, and to appreciate Canada’s historical and cultural heritage to meet social objectives.
As noted above, land access and protected areas were identified as crucial issues for the mining industry during the WMI. During WMI discussions, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) made a commitment to prepare a paper for stakeholders that would provide information to clarify the nature of existing networks of protected areas and future directions. While NRCan was writing the paper, a decision was taken to expand the objective and add issues for consideration that could prompt further discussion on the evolution of protected areas initiatives in Canada.
The intent of this background paper is to fulfil NRCan’s WMI commitment. The purpose of the paper is twofold: to clarify Canada’s protected areas initiatives for the minerals and metals industry, thereby promoting greater certainty for industry’s investment decisions; and to present ideas for discussions that can hopefully advance Canada’s environmental, social and economic objectives.
This background paper will: document the evolution in thinking about protected areas over the last 125 years; examine ongoing protected areas programs to determine whether they will achieve stated environmental, social and economic objectives; and suggest how present approaches could be modified to better realize Canada’s overarching policy objective of implementing sustainable development.
As a background paper, this document is not intended to represent NRCan views. Rather, it brings together some information and ideas that may spark interest and promote further discussion to help reconcile the need for both protected areas and access to land.