News Release

Government Parks Act Threatens to Undermine Yukon Protected Areas Strategy (YPAS)

November 16, 2001 – Whitehorse. CPAWS-Yukon is deeply concerned that the Parks and Land Certainty Act, tabled by the Liberals on October 22 is being rushed through the legislature, without time for reasonable public review. If passed, the Act would undermine the fundamental goals and principles of the Yukon Protected Areas Strategy.

“Our recent poll shows that Yukoners want our important wild lands protected and are not prepared to sacrifice our natural heritage,” said Mac Hislop, CPAWS Campaign Coordinator. “The Act doesn’t reflect the Yukon Protected Areas Strategy or the Public Advisory Committee’s recommendations to Cabinet. Yukoners worked for years on YPAS and deserve an Act that reflects its spirit and intent.”

In its present form, the Act has four key flaws:

• The Act gives no clear priority to protecting biological diversity or ecological integrity – the essential purpose of protected areas – and rejects protection of more than one core protected area per ecoregion.

• The Act guarantees rights to industrial development in parks.

• The Act does not guarantee meaningful public consultation.

• The Act does not legislate the Yukon Protected Areas Strategy that Yukoners know; instead it reduces and distorts YPAS.

“This Act must be fixed. It doesn’t represent the many years of work that went into the Protected Areas Strategy nor does it reflect the views of a majority of Yukoners,” stated Hislop. “We want the government to slow down, take time to listen to Yukoners, and make the necessary changes to ensure the Act will truly protect the Yukon’s biodiversity and the wildlands we are proud of.”

Mac Hislop
CPAWS-Yukon
Telephone: (867) 393-8080 ext. 3