Our parks system represents more than just protection for wild species and places — it also represents new opportunites for communities.

It's important to understand when looking at community benefits from protected areas to realize just how special our parks system is. The kind of large wild places that we have protected in places like Wabakimi, Lake of the Woods, Kesagami or the Lower Spanish are becoming rare finds in the rest of the world. Even in North America, industrial development, resource extraction, roads and highways have left few wild places untouched. For example, less than one percent of the old-growth red and white pine forests that once blanketed Northeastern North America remain — and most of what remains can be found right here in Ontario.

At the same time, more and more northern communities are looking for ways to diversify their economies as ongoing trends such as mechanization, consolidation and mergers eliminate jobs from traditional resource industries.

Meanwhile, a couple of other interesting trends are developing:
— tourism has become the world's fastest growing industry and eco-tourism is the fastest-growing segment of the tourism industry. Economic studies have found that eco-tourists are attracted by the quality of the experience — they want to visit truly wild places, be led by knowledgeable guides and enjoy a quality experience — and they are willing to pay for it. An important factor in attracting eco-tourists can be the presence of a park or protected area, which is seen as promising the best chance to see wildlife and have a truly natural experience.

— quality of life has become a major concern for many businesses, especially in the high-tech or "knowledge" sector. To attract the skilled employees that make such businesses successful, it is important for firms to be able to boast a quality environment. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, a wilderness-on-your-doorstep setting has been used by many companies to attract skilled employees.

— many communties are becoming interested in a more balanced use of the public lands in their region. Instead of having all lands allocated to industrial forestry, they are seeing the advantages of having designated roadless areas, of exploring the economic possibilities of non-wood forest products like wild mushrooms, or of launching craft-based value-added industries.

— communities are also interested in adding value to traditional forestry industry activities. Examples include value-added manufacturing, such as making doors and windows rather than lumber, or finding new uses for waste products, such as making particle board from wood waste. This helps ensure that more value is generated from the wood cut and reduces wood waste in landfills. Finally, communities are also realizing that it takes a high-quality resource base to generate high-value goods. A good example is the Menominee Forest in Wisconsin. This First Nation-managed forest is renowned for its top-quality hardwood forests, which are used to produce everything from veneers to furniture. (See our Sense of Place report for more details.)

The Partnership for Public Lands is committed to working with local communities and First Nations to make the most of these opportunties.

For further details, check out these related pages:

• Planning for Prosperity, a document on how Ontario can protect 15-20% of the land, maintain wood flow to mills and create 8,000 new jobs 
• A Sense of Place, a report on people and communities on the road to a new northern economy. An appendix * to the report outlines more detailed observations from each of the places featured.
  (*These documents are in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader -- available free from Adobe's web site -- to view them. It's easy to install, and if you install it as a plug-in for Netscape you can read these documents on line. Click here to go to the Adobe site now.)