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Indicator 1.1.2 - Area of forest by type and age class, wetlands, soil types, and geomorphological feature types in protected areas in each ecozone core indicator 
Canada has a long tradition of protecting its natural heritage and is internationally recognized for its many parks. From Canada’s first park, established in 1885, the national network of parks has expanded to include 41 national parks and reserves, two marine conservation areas, and 904 historic sites. By 2005, together with land set aside for future national parks, this protected area covered 30.3 million ha. In addition, 51 national wildlife areas, covering 529 000 ha, provide protection for wildlife and their habitats under the Canada Wildlife Act. In addition to national parks and reserves, an extensive system of provincial, territorial, and municipal parks stretches across the country. By 2005, almost 12% of the total land area of Canada was protected. About 8.2% of Canada’s land area is considered strictly protected, where no resource extraction is allowed— an increase of 78% since 1990 (Figure 1.1b). 
Figure 1.1b Protected land area in Canada (percentage of total land area). (Source: Environment Canada) Conservation of forest values also occurs outside of formally protected areas. As much as 19% of productive forest land is classified as being under policy constraint (CanFI 1991). This area includes land that will not be harvested due to policy or legislative guidelines, such as land that serves as buffers along watercourses or land that is owned by or managed through agreements with conservation agencies. In the past, decisions taken by governments to establish protected areas were often based on landscape features and natural beauty. In recent years, conservation efforts have been directed toward protecting areas that contain representative examples of Canada’s biodiversity. Government policies collectively support completing a network of protected areas. Most provinces and territories have been involved in extensive consultations to reconcile economic and social interests and have made significant progress toward protecting representative areas. This indicator characterizes the ecological nature of protected forest areas by ecozone in Canada and can help provide insight on progress made in protecting representative forest areas. The World Conservation Union (IUCN 1994) defines a protected area as “an area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means.” Six IUCN categories of protected areas are designated, depending on their management objectives: Category I. Strict nature reserve/wilderness area— managed mainly for science or wilderness protection Category II. National park—managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation Category III. Natural monument—managed mainly for conservation of specific natural features Category IV. Habitat/species management area— managed mainly for conservation through management intervention Category V. Protected landscape/seascape—managed mainly for landscape/seascape conservation and recreation Category VI. Managed resource protected area— managed for the sustainable use of natural ecosystems Spatial data on protected areas were compiled from provincial sources and the Canadian Conservation Areas Database (CCAD) (CCEA 2001). In cases where provincial protected areas were not classified by IUCN category, information in the CCAD was crossreferenced with provincial information to determine the appropriate IUCN category. Information is incomplete for some protected areas listed in the CCAD and these areas are not included in the analysis; hence, the total protected area is underestimated by as much as 26%. Areas under policy constraint are also not included. Forest type, designated as softwood, hardwood, or mixedwood, was extracted from the CanFI 2001 database as was data on age class. Data for forest type are available only for the 274.9 million ha of stocked forest land. Age information is available for about 174 million ha of stocked forest land. A geographic information system was used to overlay the spatial data on protected areas onto the CanFI 2001 mapping units and onto soils data to allow the reporting of the forest inventory data and soil orders by protected area. No information is currently available on geomorphologic feature types in protected areas or by ecozone. Table 1.1c describes the area of forest and other wooded land occurring in protected areas by ecozone. Over 31 million ha (almost 8%) of forest and other wooded land in Canada is protected. Among forest ecozones, the area of protected forest and other wooded land varies from less than 100 000 ha for some ecozones to several million hectares for the Taiga Plains, Boreal Shield, Boreal Plains, and Montane Cordillera ecozones. The percentage of forest and other wooded land protected varies from less than 5% in the Southern Arctic and Mixedwood Plains to over 12% in the Taiga Plains, Taiga Cordillera, and Montane Cordillera. About 25% of the forest and other wooded land in the Arctic Cordillera and Northern Arctic are protected, but these ecozones have only tiny areas of forest compared with other ecozones in the country. Over 23.5 million ha or more than 75% of Canada’s protected forest and other wooded land are considered strictly protected (classified as IUCN categories I–III), where no resource extraction is allowed. These areas offer a high level of protection for ecological values. In ecozones such as the Boreal Cordillera, Pacific Maritime, and Montane Cordillera, more than 90% of the protected forest and other wooded land is strictly protected. Protected areas classified as IUCN categories IV–VI cover 7.6 million ha of Canada’s forest and other wooded land. These areas may have an array of resource uses associated with them as long as protection of the environment is a major consideration. Table 1.1c Area (000 ha) of forest, by type, and other wooded land in protected areas. Table 1.1d reports on over 13.6 million ha of stocked forest in protected areas for which age information is available. Eighty percent of this area is considered strictly protected. Most of the protected uneven-aged forest is found in the Atlantic Maritime, Mixedwood Plains, and Boreal Shield where these types of forest are more common. Most of the protected old forest (161 + years old) is found in the Montane Cordillera and Pacific Maritime ecozones where forests tend to be older due to less frequent stand-replacing fires. Old forests often have unique ecological and aesthetic value. Over 96% of the protected stocked forest more than 161 years old is considered strictly protected. Table 1.1d Area (000 ha) of protected forest by age class. Wetland data also came from the CanFI 2001 database, while spatial soil data came from the National Soil Database (CLBRR 1996). Table 1.1e describes the total area of wetlands and the protected wetland area in each ecozone. The total area of protected wetlands is approximately 9.7 million ha (over 7% of the total area of wetlands) but this varies widely between ecozones, ranging from 2% in the Mixedwood Plains to almost 28% in the Pacific Maritime. The strictly protected component accounts for almost 8 million ha, more than 55% of which occur in national parks. The ecological importance of wetlands and the provincial activities to conserve them are described under Indicator 1.1.1. Data are not available to separate treed wetlands by protection status. Table 1.1e Area (000 ha) and percentage of wetlands protected in forest ecozones.
The Canadian System of Soil Classification classifies soils in Canada into broad groupings called orders on the basis of the physical properties of the soil. Different soil orders usually support different forest communities, depending on the climate and other factors. Therefore, maintaining a diversity of soil orders in protected areas can help ensure that the full diversity of forest ecosystems is protected. Table 1.1f describes the distribution of soil orders in protected forest areas in each ecozone, which tends to reflect the overall distribution of soil orders across the country. Much of the boreal forest in Canada is characterized by podzolic and organic soils with some brunisolic soils. Farther south, brunisols and luvisols dominate, particularly in the southern mixedwood and hardwood forests. Cryosols are frozen soils that characterize permafrost regions of the country. Chernozemic soils generally dominate in the Prairies and parkland landscapes. Solonetz soils are salinized soils that tend to reflect a land cover of grasses and herbs and are rarely associated with forest ecosystems. Regosols can occur anywhere. They are poorly developed soils that occur in association with well-developed soils. They may reflect riparian conditions, landslide areas, shallow slopes, and other areas where soils are considered young and perhaps unstable. Wetlands are characterized largely by organic soils. For this analysis, poorly drained mineral soils, called gleysols, were grouped with organic soils. Table 1.1f Area (000 ha) of Canadian soil orders in protected areas.
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