CPAWS Recommendations to the Minister’s Round Table on Parks Canada

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Table of Contents

• We have organized our recommendations under the following three priority themes: 2
• Recommendation 1. Significantly ramp up efforts to establish national parks/national park reserves, national urban parks (NUPs), and NMCA(R)s to contribute to protecting at least 30 percent of land and ocean by 2030. 2
• a. Develop and publicly release an implementation plan for how Parks Canada will, in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, create 10 new national parks and national park reserves in the coming years. 2
• b. Work to complete establishment agreements for all currently proposed national parks and NMCAs by 2025. 2
• c. Deliver on the commitment to establish new NMCAs in all 24 marine ecoregions and take a leading role in the protection of Canada’s ocean. 2
• d. Continue work to incorporate climate change considerations into the planning, establishment and management of Parks Canada protected areas, for example by identifying, valuing and securing high-carbon ecosystems, and contributing to land and seasca... 3
• Recommendation 2. Take a leadership role in managing land and ocean beyond park boundaries to support ecological integrity within the parks and to ensure wildlife can safely move through the broader land and seascape. 3
• a. Leadership at the park level to contribute to managing the broader ecosystems around national parks and NMCA(R)s in ways that support the ecological integrity of the parks. 3
• b. Connectivity work at Parks Canada follows international standards and best practices and builds on existing national research and expertise. 3
• c. Enhancing connectivity between marine and terrestrial biomes. 4
• d. Look beyond site-by-site establishment of individual NMCA(R)s and engage in sea- scape level planning, including MPA networks and Marine Spatial Planning, that addresses connectivity and supports climate change adaptation. 4
• Recommendation 3. Maintaining and restoring ecological integrity is the first priority for managing national parks and NMCAs. Achieving this includes, among other priorities, prohibiting infrastructure and activities that threaten wildlife and ecosyst... 4
• b. Prevent overuse of parks and sensitive sites within them by developing and implementing a visitor use management strategy in all parks with high visitation rates. 4
• c. Maintain and strengthen the current protection levels and prohibitions afforded under the Canada NMCA Act and newly announced NMCA policy and implement the minimum protection standards for MPAs. 5
• d. To improve transparency in Parks Canada plans and operations and eliminate science, monitoring, and reporting gaps, we recommend: 5
• e. Implement in an efficient and timely manner the entire Action Plan for Wood Buffalo National Park, as required by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. 6
• Overall comments on the organization of the Round Table 6
• We appreciate Parks Canada’s work in organizing this virtual Minister’s Round Table and would like to commend the team and facilitators for their work. It was nice to see different stakeholders present and hear their various perspectives. It was espec... 6
• As with the 2020 Round Table, we would like to point out the lack of up-front engagement in planning and organizing the Round Table. We would greatly appreciate being engaged in the dialogue about the broader structure and process for the Round Table,... 6
• One of our recommendations for planning future Round Tables would be to strengthen the scope of the Round Table to regularly focus more attention on marine management issues. The framing of this year’s Minister’s Round Table failed to adequately captu... 6
• We look forward to seeing the response to the MRT within 180 days, and to continued engagement 6
• with the Minister and with Parks Canada. 6