Conservation First Principle
WWF’s Conservation First Principle states that: “There should be no new or expanded large-scale industrial development in Canada until a network of protected areas is reserved which adequately represents the natural region(s) affected by that development.”
Canada has a rich and inspiring heritage of biological diversity. This natural capital is the foundation of our country’s economic, human and ecological well-being. An essential element of conserving Canada’s natural heritage is to permanently protect an ecologically viable, representative sample of each of the country’s terrestrial and aquatic natural regions. These protected areas conserve a basic level of natural habitat for Canadian wildlife and the ecological processes that provide us with fresh water, fertile soils, clean air and healthy animals and plants. In many places, these natural areas are crucial to the continued livelihoods and cultural integrity of Canada’s indigenous peoples.
Protecting representative samples of every natural region in Canada is something that can and must be accomplished in a way that fully respects constitutional Aboriginal rights, and provides genuine economic opportunities for local residents. WWF believes this goal can be accomplished without sacrificing jobs or economic development, as was demonstrated in the Ontario Lands for Life process. In fact, it is not only possible, but is the economically, socially, culturally and ecologically appropriate way to achieve truly “sustainable development.”
Protected areas are just that: natural habitats allowed to cycle and change at the hands of nature, free from industrial development. They contain no logging, mining, oil and gas, or hydro electric development. Sensitive development can proceed outside of protected areas, using the latest technology to minimize any adverse impacts on wildlife, ecosystem function, or local cultures. Reserving protected areas and ensuring ecologically sensitive development on the landscape outside of protected areas through advanced land-use planning provides certainty for investors, developers, governments, conservationists, and the general public alike.
Canada has a rich and inspiring heritage of biological diversity. This natural capital is the foundation of our country’s economic, human and ecological well-being. An essential element of conserving Canada’s natural heritage is to permanently protect an ecologically viable, representative sample of each of the country’s terrestrial and aquatic natural regions. These protected areas conserve a basic level of natural habitat for Canadian wildlife and the ecological processes that provide us with fresh water, fertile soils, clean air and healthy animals and plants. In many places, these natural areas are crucial to the continued livelihoods and cultural integrity of Canada’s indigenous peoples.
Protecting representative samples of every natural region in Canada is something that can and must be accomplished in a way that fully respects constitutional Aboriginal rights, and provides genuine economic opportunities for local residents. WWF believes this goal can be accomplished without sacrificing jobs or economic development, as was demonstrated in the Ontario Lands for Life process. In fact, it is not only possible, but is the economically, socially, culturally and ecologically appropriate way to achieve truly “sustainable development.”
Protected areas are just that: natural habitats allowed to cycle and change at the hands of nature, free from industrial development. They contain no logging, mining, oil and gas, or hydro electric development. Sensitive development can proceed outside of protected areas, using the latest technology to minimize any adverse impacts on wildlife, ecosystem function, or local cultures. Reserving protected areas and ensuring ecologically sensitive development on the landscape outside of protected areas through advanced land-use planning provides certainty for investors, developers, governments, conservationists, and the general public alike.
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The South Nahanni River winds through mountains, Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, Canada.
Poll after poll indicates that Canadians believe we have a global responsibility to safeguard Canada’s biodiversity. Reflecting this enduring concern, Canada signed and ratified the international Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992. The same year, all Canadian ministers of wildlife, parks, environment and forestry (federally, provincially and territorially) agreed in the Tri-Council Commitment to take a critical first step in conserving biodiversity by completing a network of ecologically representative protected areas in land-based natural regions by 2000, and accelerating the protection of representative protected areas in Canada’s marine natural regions.
The area of representative protected areas in Canada subsequently doubled in the 1990s, but the overdue Tri-Council Commitment is far from being met. Only 132 of 486 natural terrestrial regions are moderately or adequately represented in protected areas, and marine regions remain almost entirely unrepresented. Yet every week, industry pursues and governments approve new oil and gas leases, forest allocations, mining projects, hydro dams and other large-scale development projects in Canada’s natural habitats.
Every time a development project is proposed in a natural region that is not yet adequately represented by protected areas, we erode the options to establish these natural and cultural safeguards. WWF believes that there should be no new or expanded large-scale industrial development in Canada until a network of protected areas is reserved which adequately represents the natural region(s) affected by that development.
If we do not implement this Conservation First Principle today, we may forever lose the option to safeguard a representative sample of Canada’s biological diversity. Our economic, cultural, public and environmental health is at stake, and will not wait.
The area of representative protected areas in Canada subsequently doubled in the 1990s, but the overdue Tri-Council Commitment is far from being met. Only 132 of 486 natural terrestrial regions are moderately or adequately represented in protected areas, and marine regions remain almost entirely unrepresented. Yet every week, industry pursues and governments approve new oil and gas leases, forest allocations, mining projects, hydro dams and other large-scale development projects in Canada’s natural habitats.
Every time a development project is proposed in a natural region that is not yet adequately represented by protected areas, we erode the options to establish these natural and cultural safeguards. WWF believes that there should be no new or expanded large-scale industrial development in Canada until a network of protected areas is reserved which adequately represents the natural region(s) affected by that development.
If we do not implement this Conservation First Principle today, we may forever lose the option to safeguard a representative sample of Canada’s biological diversity. Our economic, cultural, public and environmental health is at stake, and will not wait.