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Resources & Tools
CARTS to bring management of Canada's protected areas to new heights
The challenge of managing and safeguarding Canada's thousands of land and marine protected areas will be facilitated by CGDI tools and services when the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas introduces its new web-based Conservation Areas Reporting and Tracking System (CARTS).
At the World Congress of Protected Areas in March 2004, Canada committed to reporting internationally on the status of its protected areas. Given the variety of public and private agencies that manage Canada's protected areas network, this is no easy task. Traditionally, users have had difficulty integrating data and summarizing information from these diverse agencies because no one defines 'protected areas' in quite the same way, and data about these areas tends to lie in disparate and often incompatible databases across the country.
Integrated national system promises improved decision making
These difficulties may soon be a thing of the past. Developed in part with funding from GeoConnections, the web-based CARTS system is intended to allow both international and Canadian protected areas agencies and the public to visualize, analyze, and obtain standardized protected areas maps for any part of Canada—all from a single website or "portal." The maps portray different classes of protected areas, following guidelines agreed to by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and refined for application by our federal, provincial and territorial agencies. The portal will access protected areas data directly from these source agencies through the National Forest Information System, another GeoConnections-funded CGDI project.
Potential CARTS users include not only protected areas managers, but also environmental non-government organizations and industries such as tourism, utilities, transportation, and forestry. The portal is designed to provide protected areas information to other portals, such as those facilitating environmental assessment and sustainable development. The system will appeal to non-technical users as well, offering summary reports and maps for the interested public.
Regardless of their technical skills, CARTS users will be able to access seamless regional and national information about Canada's protected areas. Maintained by agencies throughout the country, this information will help users understand the scope of Canada's conservation efforts. Users will gain a clearer picture of not only public conservation efforts but also those of environmental organizations and land trusts across the country. This "big-picture" perspective will better equip decision makers to accurately report on Canada's conservation objectives to an international audience.
Data standards make national view possible
CARTS will rely on CGDI-endorsed standards such as those of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Interoperability afforded by these standards will allow CARTS to link to, display, and analyze protected areas data from a variety of distributed sources throughout Canada in one streamlined, current, easy-to-manage, and easy-to-use application that is accessible to everyone.
In addition, agencies will be able to rely on a content-standard guidebook, based upon a well-accepted international standard (IUCN), to assess which class a particular area belongs to. These classes are based upon management objectives and are important for both protecting land from industrial activity and for sound stewardship where these activities take place. As a result, CARTS can report consistently on both protection and stewardship across the country.
For the latest information regarding CARTS, please visit Environment Canada's Biodiversity projects page at http://www.cise-scie.ca/english/biodiversity/biodiversity_projects.cfm.