Protected Areas Data

• Trends in land and freshwater and marine areas protected, Canada, 1990 to 2012
• Land and freshwater and marine areas protected by federal jurisdictions, Canada, 2012
• Protected area by IUCN category, Canada, 2012
• Total land and freshwater protected by province and territory, Canada, 2012
• Total area protected by ecological region, Canada, 2012

 

Trends in land and freshwater and marine areas protected, Canada, 1990 to 2012

Year	Land and freshwater area protected (km2)	Percent land and freshwater area protected	Marine area protected (km2)	Percent of marine area protected
1990	522 182	5.2	18 591	0.26
1991	522 682	5.2	18 617	0.26
1992	525 521	5.3	18 977	0.27
1993	536 118	5.4	19 229	0.27
1994	539 581	5.4	19 236	0.27
1995	579 284	5.8	21 015	0.30
1996	598 249	6.0	21 872	0.31
1997	609 570	6.1	21 888	0.31
1998	636 975	6.4	23 900	0.34
1999	648 553	6.5	23 901	0.34
2000	659 946	6.6	24 024	0.34
2001	718 301	7.2	24 531	0.35
2002	741 827	7.4	24 754	0.35
2003	800 348	8.0	28 094	0.40
2004	810 172	8.1	30 495	0.43
2005	839 629	8.4	32 221	0.45
2006	845 007	8.5	32 508	0.46
2007	870 091	8.7	32 539	0.46
2008	921 066	9.2	39 816	0.56
2009	974 443	9.8	40 370	0.57
2010	981 871	9.8	49 592	0.70
2011	998 161	10.0	49 592	0.70
2012	1 005 153	10.1	49 592	0.70

Note: The land area of Canada is 9 984 670 km² and its marine territory is approximately 7.1 million km². Protected areas that lack information on creation date have been allocated to a date earlier than 1990. Overlaps between protected areas are not corrected for in this analysis.

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Land and freshwater and marine areas protected by federal jurisdictions, Canada, 2012

Jurisdiction	Land and freshwater area protected (km2)	Marine area protected (km2)	Total (km2)
Parks Canada Agency	308 996	11 636	320 633
Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service	104 901	19 589	124 490
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada	53 847	0	53 847
Fisheries and Oceans Canada	0	10 379	10 379
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada*	9103	0	9103
Parks Canada / MDDEFP, Quebec**	0	1246	1246
National Capital Commission (NCC)	449	0	449
Grand Total	477 296	42 850	520 146

* These lands are to be returned to provincial management by 2015.
** Parks Canada and the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement, de la Faune et des Parcs, Quebec, share jurisdiction.

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Protected area by IUCN category, Canada, 2012

Category	Area protected (km2)
IA	10 611
IB	341 153
II	536 769
III	71 110
IV	24 907
V	840
VI	52 961
Unclassified	16 393

Note: Land and freshwater and marine areas are included in these totals. Category definitions are derived from the IUCN’s standards based on management objectives. Categories I through IV are generally considered “strictly protected,” but these are based on purpose of management and do not reflect effectiveness. Unclassified areas are recognized as protected but have not yet been assigned a numbered category.

Source for Categories: Canadian Council on Ecological Areas (2008) Canadian Guidebook for the Application of IUCN Protected Areas Categories.

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Total land and freshwater protected by province and territory, Canada, 2012

Province or territory	Protected area (km2)	Provincial or territorial area (km2)	Percentage of province or territory protected
British Columbia	135 840	944 735	14.4
Alberta	82 559	661 848	12.5
Yukon Territory	57 414	482 443	11.9
Manitoba	70 124	647 797	10.8
Ontario	110 178	1 076 395	10.2
Nunavut	208 588	2 093 190	10.0
Northwest Territories	124 647	1 346 106	9.3
Quebec	137 017	1 513 879	9.1
Nova Scotia	4598	55 284	8.3
Saskatchewan	51 925	651 036	8.0
Newfoundland and Labrador	18 535	405 212	4.6
New Brunswick	2234	72 908	3.1
Prince Edward Island	159	5660	2.8
Canada	1 001 343	9 984 670	10.0

Note: Marine areas are excluded from the provincial area and from the protected area estimate.

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Total area protected by ecological region, Canada, 2012

Region name	Map label	Region area (km2)	Area protected (km2)	Percentage of region protected
Arctic	1	2 491 008	295 737	11.9
Atlantic Maritime	2	205 429	10 808	5.3
Boreal Cordillera	3	444 651	73 125	16.4
Boreal Plains	4	690 588	56 346	8.2
Boreal Shield	5	1 764 053	158 277	9.0
Hudson Plains	6	348 016	45 135	13.0
Mixedwood Plain	7	118 924	1949	1.6
Montane Cordillera	8	423 658	78 798	18.6
Newfoundland Boreal	9	111 729	8695	7.8
Pacific Maritime	10	204 768	38 835	19.0
Prairie	11	460 246	29 128	6.3
Taiga Cordillera	12	339 393	53 607	15.8
Taiga Plains	13	584 709	41 969	7.2
Taiga Shield	14	1 317 096	93 913	7.1
Western Interior Basin	15	56 634	5204	9.2
Great Lakes	99	91 514	11 063	12.1
Arctic Archipelago	M7	268 797	2225	0.83
Arctic Basin	M5	752 053	169	0.02
Eastern Arctic	M8	782 639	8885	1.14
Gulf of Saint Lawrence	M12	247 184	4407	1.78
Hudson Bay Complex	M9	1 244 644	8880	0.71
Newfoundland-Labrador Shelves	M10	1 041 656	228	0.02
Northern Shelf	M4	101 328	5379	5.31
Offshore Pacific	M3	315 724	6196	1.96
Scotian Shelf	M11	416 485	2400	0.58
Southern Shelf	M2	28 158	719	2.55
Strait of Georgia	M1	8970	352	3.93
Western Arctic	M6	539 793	9753	1.81

Note: For this report, ecozones+ are used for terrestrial (including land and freshwater) areas, and marine bioregions for marine areas. Both are frameworks delineating broad areas with distinctive biophysical characteristics and similar sets of species. Ecozones are numbered; bioregions are coded with an ‘M’ and numbered in a separate series.

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