Welcome to Conservation Blog

Photograph credit: Nicholas Curran

 
   ConserBlog was created by the collective work of Nicholas Curran and Michael Parkes. Nicholas is a Nova Scotian  and has a degree in Biology and is currently working towards his Honours. Michael is from Ontario and is studying Geography at Memorial University.   These two CFA's are enrolled in Conservation Biology and have created ConserBlog in order to educate the public on current issues facing protected areas in Newfoundland, Canada, and around the globe.

    This blog is dedicated to showcasing the province of Newfoundland and Labrador's effort to protecting its ecologically significant areas for present and future generations.  ConserBlog will give the general public insight into how this province is doing in the fight to protect our natural bioregions and all they encompass.  ConserBlog will also be examining conservation efforts from regions around the globe and seeing how we, as Newfoundlanders, are doing in comparison.

    Why do we need to have protected areas? In a world where the human population is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, urban sprawl, pollution, and over utilization of our natural resources is rampant.  We need to develop plans to protect ecologically significant areas before they disappear forever.  Species of plants and animals are going extinct at an alarming rate, therefore as we humans are at the root of most of these problems, it is our responsibility to alleviate them. Setting aside protected areas is one way that we can assure that we maintain biodiversity for our children and our children's children.

    The provincial government has categorized its protected areas into four distinctly different groups; provincial parks, Heritage Rivers, wilderness reserves, and ecological reserves.  There are seven provincial parks in Newfoundland and Labrador.  These parks' main objective is to give people outdoor recreational opportunities while encouraging people to experience their natural surroundings.  There are only two heritage rivers, the Main River and the Bay du Nord River, in Newfoundland.  Heritage Rivers are designed to protect rivers of national significance and to encourage public interest in these important landscapes.  Wilderness reserves and ecological reserves are areas set aside by the government for the protection of ecologically significant areas.  The main difference between a wilderness reserve and an ecological reserve is the size of the protected area.  Wilderness areas are very large, more an 1000 square kilometres and there are only two in the province, whereas ecological reserves are smaller and more numerous (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2012).  Is this network of protected areas significantly large enough to protect our provinces' plants and wildlife for generations to come? ConserBlog will attempt to answer this question.

Here is a link to a map of all the provincial parks and protected areas in Newfoundland:
http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/parks/maps/2010wallmap.pdf


Source:

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, site viewed on February 10, 2012.
http://www.env.gov.nl.ca/env/index.html