Accounting
How Much of Canada is Conserved?
How will we know how much of Canada is conserved? We need to track the data! Canada’s ‘accounting system’ for protected and conserved areas allows us to understand and track which areas count towards Canada’s national conservation objectives. At the end of 2023, 13.7% of Canada’s land and freshwater was conserved, including 12.8% as Protected Areas and 0.9% as Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures.
Accounting – an Overview
An overview of accounting for protected and other conserved areas in the context of Pathway to Canada Target 1.
Accounting for Protected and Other Conserved Areas - July 2019 (.pdf)
What is accounting? - What is needed for your site to be counted as a Protected Area (PA) or Other Effective Area‐Based Conservation Measure (OECM)? (also available in Inuktitut)
Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs)
This document aims to address specific questions and misconceptions that commonly arise related to OECMs in terrestrial and inland-water environments, including frequently asked questions about the process and requirements for evaluating and reporting OECMs in Canada.
Featured examples of OECMs and Protected Areas in Canada
Click to download the slideshow: Stories from Canada’s conservation network
Decision Support Tool
Guidance and criteria for evaluating areas that may contribute to Canada Target 1. The guidance accompanying this document will be updated regularly based on user feedback and lessons learned.
An introduction to the Decision Support Tool
This presentation was developed to help introduce the new Decision Support Tool for reporting protected and conserved areas on terrestrial and inland waters in Canada. This tool is designed for protected area practitioners, and supports consistent and transparent evaluation and reporting of terrestrial protected and conserved areas in Canada. This overview presentation does not address the details of specific screening criteria. Detailed information is included in the DST, and can be discussed with jurisdictional experts.
Submitting new protected or conserved areas for consideration
If you require assistance to complete a screening of a potential Protected Area or Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measure (OECM) using the Decision Support Tool, please contact ERcataloguePW@ec.gc.ca.
If you have completed a screening for an area that you would like to propose be considered for inclusion in the Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database, please send the completed Decision Support Tool Screening Template for Protected Areas and OECMs to the appropriate contact, listed by jurisdiction. If your jurisdiction is not listed, please send completed screenings to ERcataloguePW@ec.gc.ca.
| Jurisdiction | Contact information |
| Alberta | barbara.bahnmann@gov.ab.ca |
| Manitoba | pai@gov.mb.ca |
| New Brunswick | maryse.bourgeois@gnb.ca |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | emilythompson@gov.nl.ca |
| Nova Scotia | Craig.Smith2@novascotia.ca |
| Northwest Territories | Danielle_Thompson@gov.nt.ca |
| Ontario | laura.bjorgan@ontario.ca PA.OECM.Reporting@Ontario.ca |
| Prince Edward Island | ggregory@gov.pe.ca |
| Yukon | jessica.elliott@yukon.ca |
Canada’s Conserved Areas Reporting
The Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators program updates statistics on Canada’s protected and other conserved areas each year.
The Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD) contains data on marine and terrestrial conserved areas.
Every few years, an in-depth report provides a snapshot addressing a wider range of issues: