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- Conservation of Marine Ecosystems ( CANADA) by the NRTEE) ,
Below is a quote from Chapter 9 of a report on Securing Canada's Natural Capital.
"9.2 Key challenges
One of the most significant barriers to advancing marine conservation in Canada is the extent to which responsibility for protecting marine habitat is fragmented and spread among various agencies and jurisdictions. Within the federal government alone there are more than 35 pieces of legislation and at least 25 agencies concerned with marine management. In addition, although the federal government has primary jurisdiction over the oceans and the continental shelf, authority for some portions of the coastal zone is shared by the federal government with provinces and territories. This has resulted in confusion, duplication of effort and protracted delays in making decisions that affect ocean users.
There is also a lack of coordination within the federal government. Although Fisheries and Oceans Canada has a mandate under the Oceans Act to coordinate the efforts of the three federal agencies that can establish MPAs—Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada and Environment Canada—there is no comprehensive federal approach to MPAs. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has taken a “learning by doing” approach to Oceans Act MPAs, by identifying a series of pilot Oceans Act MPA sites on Canada’s coasts. Parks Canada has developed a systems plan based on 29 marine regions but has not identified specific sites for all of them, and Environment Canada has yet to identify the sites that would complete its marine system of national and marine wildlife areas. The lack of a coordinated national plan for MPAs has led to uncertainty among resource users that in some cases has translated into fear and diminished support for conservation initiatives.
A third major challenge is our limited knowledge of the oceans compared with what is known about the land. For example, decision makers have extremely limited knowledge about the seabed and the habitat it provides for key species. In essence, we do not know enough about the underwater topography of important marine habitats to manage them effectively. Much of the bottom of Canada’s oceans is mapped at only a very rough scale and, even though ecosystem management requires an understanding of marine food webs, many of the links between marine species are not well understood. " end of quote
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| BILL C-10: AN ACT RESPECTING THE NATIONAL MARINE CONSERVATION AREAS OF CANADA Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act The Bill received Royal Assent on June 13, 2002 -- exactly 4 yrs and 2 days after it was first tabled in the House of Commons. It is now an Act of Parliament . |
| OCEANS LEGISLATION IN CANADA |
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