Institutional Arrangements for a System of Environmentally Significant Areas: The Case of the East Beaufort Sea Area, Canada

Abstract

A method is described of matching environmentally significant areas (ESAs) with the most appropriate form of management for each, selected from all the available forms. This involves comparing the purpose, reasons for significance, existing uses, and tenure, of each ESA, with the characteristics of agencies, protected area categories, legislation, and non-statutory arrangements for management, as well as examining agency coordination mechanisms or other means of implementation. The method was formulated for ESAs in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada, but is considered to have wide applicability. It is illustrated with a test application to seven proposed ESAs in what is termed the eastern Beaufort Sea region.

Institutional Arrangements for Individual Environmentally Significant Areas: The Case of Aishihik, Yukon

“…The research contributed to the linking of thirty-five candidate Yukon ESAs and their varying abiotic, biotic, and cultural, characteristics with what were considered to be appropriate land-management types (Theberge et al, 1980). Similar procedures were employed in subsequent re- (Nelson & Jessen, 1984). In this case, however, more emphasis was placed on reserve designation, or land-management, types than on associated laws or agencies.…”

“…Table II). More details on this are available in Nelson & Jessen (1984), and . It is important to note that, when studied in totality, the IUCN land-management types permit a very wide array of land-uses as well as levels and kinds of conservation.…”

“…For such areas, a complex of institutional arrange-ments may have to be considered. Examples of both the relatively simple and the more complex areas in the Yukon and NWT are presented in Theberge et al (1980) and Nelson & Jessen (1984).…”

A Theoretical Basis for Managing Environmentally Sensitive Areas

“…One measure of local government's ability in environmental planning for privately-owned natural resources is the process by which certain resources or areas are designated for special conservation-related land-use considerations. Such resources or areas have been studied by several research workers and termed 'environmentally sensitive areas' or 'environmentally significant areas' (ESAs) (Lang & Armour, 1980;Newman, 1982;Young et al, 1983;Bastedo et al, 1984;Duinker & Beanlands, 1986;Smith & Theberge, 1986;Nelson & Smith, 1987;Stowers & Wanchick, 1987;Turner & Brooke, 1988). Additionally, the terms have been used in legislative and administrative law in North America (Washington Administrative Code, 1984;Revised Statute of British Columbia, 1987) without being succinctly defined.…”