In an era of increasing uncertainty about our natural world, whether it is climate change, overpopulation, pollution or endangered species, the importance of protecting the environment and the services it provides grows. Today, Canadians realize we simply cannot afford to take our environment for granted. At the beginning of 2007, amid news of warming temperatures, shrinking glaciers and chemical contamination, poll after poll confirmed that the environment has become the key issue for Canadians – topping health care, poverty, crime and tax relief.
Read on to see how Manitoba’s parks compare to neighbouring jurisdictions. Find out about the threats to your parks system and what you can do about it.
Whiteshell Provincial Park on the eastern border of Manitoba, is one of Manitoba’s best-known provincial parks. In addition to meager funding and staffing, industrial clearcut logging is having an impact on Whiteshell. Four other parks are suffering similar impacts from clearcut logging, while numerous parks allow mining activity. Photo by Mike Grandmaison.
Manitoba's Parks
Paradise lost or Environmental Legacy?
People in Western Canada know we live in a special part of the world. From the mixed-grass prairies of Manitoba, to the rainforests of British Columbia; from the Rocky Mountains of Alberta to the Athabasca sand dunes in Saskatchewan – the diversity of our natural landscapes contribute to a quality of life that is second to none.
Manitobans value their provincial parks and want to see them properly protected. A January 2006 Manitoba government summary of public consultation regarding Nopiming stated people “overwhelmingly” were in favor of increasing the level of protection for Nopiming, and want industrial activity out of the park. 1
For over 100 years we have worked to protect our special places, building provincial parks systems that are truly world class. Visiting a park allows us to reconnect with the natural world: to dip our toes in a cool clear stream or take a walk in the forest. Wilderness gives us aesthetic pleasures, but behind the roar of a river, the hoot of an owl and the hum of a bee, it is providing us with the stuff of life.
Forests purify our water, clean our air and help protect us against global warming. Bees pollinate our crops and healthy wetlands protect us against flooding. Known as “ecosystem services”, these benefits also include the provision of natural medicines, seed dispersal, soil retention, waste decomposition and the regulation of disease outbreaks.
Given the environmental uncertainty we currently face it is more important than ever to take steps to ensure a future with healthy ecosystems. One of the best ways we can do that is to stand up for our parks and protected areas. Safeguarding our protected areas is a smart decision not only from an ecological perspective, but also makes sense economically. Our provincial parks generate over a billion dollars annually to local economies throughout Western Canada. 2
Today, from BC to Manitoba, there are over 1500 provincial protected areas covering 22 million hectares. These figures sound impressive, but in reality our parks are struggling under a barrage of threats. Logging, cuts to staff and funding, weak laws, encroaching privatization and government indifference are eroding our protected areas, putting into jeopardy the future of our parks.
