National parks and protected areas
Western Canada covers vast territories with a wide variety of climates and ecosystems. One of the country's goals is to create a network of protected areas that would conserve all of these biomes. Twenty national parks and national park reserves exist in Western Canada (the latter being parks in the process of becoming parks, prior to agreement with Aboriginal peoples).
Alberta:
Banff National Park
: Canada's first park, established in 1885 and located in the Rocky Mountains.Elk Island National Park
: remarkable for its aspen forest and wildlife (bison, moose, elk, birds).Waterton Lakes National Park
: home to remarkable ecosystems between the Rocky Mountains and the prairies.Jasper National Park
: this is the largest park in the Canadian Rockies, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. British Columbia:Kootenay National Park
: located in the Rocky Mountains, it will surprise you with the variety of its environments and landscapes.Glacier National Park
: invites you to discover its geology but also its exceptional flora (cedar and hemlock forests). It is home to caribou and grizzly bears.Yoho National Park
: located in the western part of the Canadian Rockies, it is home to picturesque landscapes, particularly the Burgess Shale.Gulf Islands National Park Reserve
: protects a unique and threatened ecosystem.Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site
: home to the remains of traditional houses but also to remarkable wildlife (bears, birds, whales, porpoises).Pacific Rim National Park Reserve: located on Vancouver Island, it protects a temperate rainforest ecosystem.
Kluane National Park and Reserve
: protects Mount Logan (5,959 m), Canada's highest peak, and a population of grizzly bears.Ivvavik National Park
: meaning "place to give birth" in the Inuvialuit language, it is home to part of the caribou calving grounds.Vuntut National Park
: protects the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the Old Crow Flats, a RAMSAR designated wetland. It is home to birds but also to a large population of grizzly bears. Northwest Territories:Wood Buffalo National Park
: the largest national park in the country it preserves a biome of northern boreal plains.Tuktut Nogait National Park
: located above the Arctic Circle, it protects tundra ecosystems and a caribou calving ground. It is home to wolves, grizzly bears and muskoxen, as well as Thule archaeological sites.Auvelik National Park : it is home to a wide variety of ecosystems and landscapes (fertile river valleys, polar deserts).
A history based on logging
The settlers of the 17th century based their development on the exploitation of natural resources, starting with forests, for shipbuilding but also for energy and industry. From there, the image of the woodcutter - very emblematic - was forged. Today, the forest industry is centred on timber, with British Columbia being the leading timber-producing province. Starting in the 1960s, environmental movements across the country obtained government replanting measures. This led to a seasonal job that is now recognized but considered one of the most difficult, that of treeplanter. Imagine: walking, digging, planting at an intense pace, loaded with 30 kg of seedlings. The tree planters, 30,000 each year, are young (difficult to do this job over 30 years old), in very good physical condition, resistant to harsh and Spartan living conditions. The experience remains striking, profound and even initiatory. However, the environmental impact of these replantings must be qualified, as the carbon sink effect and the systemic services provided by a young tree are not the same as those provided by an older tree.
Energy production with a high environmental impact
In 2018, Canada ranked4th in the world in oil and gas production. It is also among the world's leading producers of hydroelectricity, nuclear power, uranium and coal. However, this abundance of resources does not mean energy independence since the country imports fossil fuels. This is partly because oil, produced in Alberta from the oil sands, is mainly consumed in Ontario and Quebec, where refineries are not adapted to this type of oil. Another major problem facing the country is the use of its oil reserves, the third largest proven reserves in the world. Located in oil shales, they can only be extracted at the cost of an immense environmental impact: deforestation, deep drilling, water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Another effect is the loss of biodiversity associated with the destruction of habitats (boreal forests, peat bogs, wetlands) and the destruction of indigenous peoples' territories. Another point, per capita primary energy consumption in Canada in 2017 was more than four times higher than the world average.
A trade-off in favor of the economy and to the detriment of the environment
The Conservative Stephen Harper government had favoured Alberta's oil production, ignoring the environment and withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011. Justin Trudeau's coming to power hasn't really changed things. Trudeau said he wanted to reconcile economic development and environmental protection, which remains a pious hope. On the one hand, targets were set under the Paris Accords to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. On the other hand, in June 2019, it was announced that work would resume on the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, designed to transport oil from Alberta to the British Columbia coast. This project, if it provides short-term economic gains, could result in an additional 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. One can imagine that carbon neutrality targets will go up in smoke.... Economic productivity also depends on asbestos mining until 2018. It is also reflected in intensive agriculture, which uses synthetic chemistry and GMOs. In 2019, Canada even authorized the industrial production of a genetically modified salmon.
When the effects of climate change are felt
A report commissioned by the Canadian government shows that annual temperatures have risen twice as much since 1948 in Canada (1.7°C) and almost three times as much in the far north (2.3°C) as the global average (0.8°C).
This increase in temperature, linked toCO2 emissions from human activities, is resulting in the melting of glaciers, already measurable in the Yukon, Alberta and British Columbia. It causes sea levels to rise and coastal erosion. It favours the creation of arid zones, the formation of dust craters but also extreme flood and drought phenomena. Rivers have already dried up and mega-fires have devastated 590,000 hectares of forest in 2016 around Fort McMurray, and 1.2 million hectares in 2017 in British Columbia. These disruptions are affecting ecosystems. The limits of certain tree species are shifting and animals are changing their migration routes. This has a direct impact on Aboriginal communities, such as the Gwin'ich, whose territory is located between Alaska and the Yukon and who live off hunting and fishing. The report sets out scenarios for temperature increases between 1.8 and 6.30°C. Melting permafrost is also a major concern, contributing to the greenhouse effect.
Vancouver, the greenest city in the world
Some provinces or cities have set up action programmes aimed at protecting the environment and combating climate change. This is the case of Vancouver, elected the world's greenest city at the end of 2019. This result is the fruit of a project initiated by the municipality in 2009: Greenest City 2020. The city has set itself a number of quantified objectives, accompanied by measurable actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the development of renewable energies, the elimination of fossil fuels, the promotion of active mobility and public transport. The plan has also led to the development of urban agriculture, the creation of natural areas, the reduction of waste through circular economy approaches and the establishment of recycling channels. The success is due both to the participatory dimension of the project, based on the quality of life in each neighbourhood, and also to the fertile ground of citizen commitment to ecology. Residents had opposed the construction of a highway as early as the 1960s, and it was in Vancouver that Greenpeace was created in 1971. Slow-travellers will be able to enjoy cycling in Vancouver and the rest of the country. There are also train lines, including the one between Vancouver and Toronto. In three and a half days, the Canadian, equipped with glass-roofed panoramic cars, will take you through the sublime landscapes of Western Canada and the Rocky Mountains.
