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Performance Indicator 16: Protected Areas

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

  Note
As of 2008, BC had 14.3 percent of its land base legally designated as protected.

Performance Indicator Sixteen lists the proportion of the land base that is protected from development. Larger protected areas earn better ranks.

In 2003, BC ranked first in Canada for the proportion of the land base protected from industrial activity at 13.0 percent. Alberta ranked second with 12.3 percent of its land base protected, followed by Ontario at 9.2 percent, and Manitoba at 8.5 percent. There is currently a new initiative to gather more recent data. We will report updated data as soon as it becomes available.

The sixth-place rank went to Newfoundland and Labrador with 4.3 percent of their land base protected from industrial activity, followed by Quebec and Saskatchewan at 3.5 percent, New Brunswick at 3.1 percent and last-place Prince Edward Island at 2.6 percent.

Follow the link for more information on BC's Biological and Ecological Diversity.

Why It's Important
Areas classified as protected are shielded from resource extraction or human activity that results in long term or large-scale impacts on the land's natural character. Such areas are also maintained as a "stock" of the land-base for biodiversity and for aesthetic, heritage, and other preservation values.











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