State of Canada’s Parks Report 2013

In the run-up to Canada Parks Day on the 3rd Saturday in July, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is releasing its fifth annual report  on how Canada’s parks are faring. The report shows that progress on creating new parks and protecting existing ones has been uneven across the country over the past 12 months.

“In Yukon we are deeply concerned about the territorial government’s stance on the Peel Watershed,” says Gill Cracknell, Executive Director of CPAWS-Yukon, “A commitment from the government to accept the Peel Final Recommended Plan without modification would show leadership in line with that shown by some of their provincial and territorial counterparts.”

CPAWS noted that on the bright side, Canada’s largest provincial park was created in the past year – called Tursujuq – in Nunavik, northern Quebec. However CPAWS also warns that problematic trends continue in many areas, including inappropriate industrial and commercial developments, cutbacks to national parks and weakening commitments in some jurisdictions to expanding parklands.   CPAWS has also identified opportunities across Canada where governments could take action to shift these trends in a more positive direction over the next year.

CPAWS has been issuing an annual report on the state of Canada’s parks since 2008. The first report lauded the rate of new parks creation by the federal government that year. Subsequent reports noted the slowdown in parks creation, the need to increase the number of marine protected areas, and some inappropriate developments that were starting to be noted.

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View full report at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41834153/CPAWS/CPAWS-2013-AR-v08.pdf

For interviews, contact: Gill Cracknell, 332-8079

CPAWS is Canada’s voice for wilderness. Since 1963 we’ve led in creating over two-thirds of Canada’s protected areas. That amounts to about half a million square kilometres – an area bigger than the entire Yukon Territory! Our vision is that Canada will protect at least half of our public land and water. As a national charity with 13 chapters, 55,000 supporters and hundreds of volunteers, CPAWS works