Report calls for stronger conservation efforts in Alberta

A recent report by the Canada Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) has given the Alberta government a D- for its efforts in protecting the province’s land and water.

The D- is an upgrade from the F it received from CPAWS back in 2021.

According to the reports, the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario received the lowest grades, ranging from D- to F.

"These four jurisdictions demonstrated little or no commitment to protecting more of their land and have shown minimal interest in pursuing effective and equitable processes for establishing protected areas. In Ontario and Alberta, this lack of progress is made worse by the rolling back of nature protection policies and legislation, and the increasing authorization of development in sensitive habitats."

Also in the report, CPAWS has a list of recommendations that they believe the Alberta government should do:

1. Commit to protecting 30 per cent of land and freshwater by 2030.
2. Commit to a permanent prohibition on new coal mining and exploration on the Eastern Slopes to prevent irreversible harm to this important wildlife habitat and the irreplaceable ecological services it provides for communities, including the provision of clean water, sustainable economies, and recreational values.
3. Uphold provincial responsibilities under the federal Species at Risk Act and commitments made in the Section 11 agreement with Canada on boreal caribou and implement Critical Habitat protection requirements for caribou, wood bison, native trout, and other at-risk species.
4. Ensure effective and equitable management of current and future protected areas in line with international standards to conserve biodiversity and ecological integrity. Ensure protections for existing protected areas are maintained or increased.
5. Continue to develop co-stewardship relationships with Indigenous Peoples to advance protected area establishment and management of their territories.
6. Support the development of a legislative framework for IPCAs and other Indigenous-led conservation initiatives and a clear process for communities to identify potential areas for protection.
7. Continue long-stalled regional land-use planning processes, ensuring that the process includes a path to creating new protected areas that will benefit species at risk and are areas of interest for Indigenous communities in all sub-regional and regional land use plans.
8. Ensure the Alberta Nature Strategy includes ambitious and measurable provincial goals and targets that are accompanied by specific actions and timelines that can be implemented over the next decade to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. 

According to CPAWS, Alberta has conserved 15.5 per cent or 102,483 km of its lands and waters.

The report considers the actions of provincial governments regarding public land and is unrelated to private land acquisitions made for conservation purposes, such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada's programs.

If you are interested in reading the full report, click HERE. The report gave our neighbors to the west, British Columbia, a B.

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