The Parks and Protected Areas dataset contains Parks and Protected Area boundaries for sites administered by the Government of Alberta. National parks, because of their similar intent, are also included. GIS line work representing provincial park/protected area boundaries has been interpreted from written legal descriptions appended to Orders-in-Council granted Royal Assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. In case of discrepancy between the GIS data and the written legal description, the written legal description shall take precedence. The Government of Canada is the authoritative source for GIS boundaries of National Parks. National Park boundaries are included herein for reference, only. GIS line work representing National Park boundaries has been interpreted from written legal descriptions within Schedule 1 of the Canada National Parks Act, and adapted to align with the Alberta Provincial Base Features/Foundational Data collection. Defining document is Canada National Parks Act, Statues of Canada 2000, Chapter 32, Assented to 20th October, 2000. In case of discrepancy between the GIS data and the written legal description, the written legal description shall take precedence. Please note that this dataset replaces the following datasets: Ecological Reserve, Heritage Rangeland, National Park, Natural Area, Provincial Park, Provincial Recreation Area, Wilderness Area, Wilderness Park, and Wildland Park.

The Provincial Parks Act provides for designation of lands to be managed under the Act that are not established as parks/protected areas. These lands are 'declared' under the Provincial Parks (Section 7 Declaration) Regulation, and are legally described in Schedules to the Regulation. Specific provisions of the Act and regulations may be applied to each land parcel declared under section 7 to provide for management of the lands. Section 7 is used to address interim management of lands that have been acquired for park/protected area purposes but are not yet designated, or where activities not permitted in a park/protected area are being managed until such time as the activity is completed and the lands can be designated as a park/protected area. The applicable Ministerial Order is referenced in the 'NOTES' field.

This dataset contains district boundaries representing geographic areas of operational responsibility within Parks Operations Division, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas. Parks Operations Division Districts nest within Parks Operations Division Management Areas, which are areas of managerial responsibility within Parks Operations Division. Management Areas in turn nest within Parks Operations Division Regions. These boundaries are administrative/operational in nature, and are subject to change.

Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) zone boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by BEC zone provides a zonal ecosystem context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

Ecosection boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by ecosection provides a landscape context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. Ecosections are distinguished from each other by enduring characteristics such as minor physiographic and macroclimatic or oceanographic variations. For more information on ecosections and the Ecoregion Classification System see: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/ecology/ecoregions/index.html. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (BEC) subzone\variant\phase boundaries with percent protected, number of overlapping protected areas and other attributes added as a result of geoprocessing in the Protected Area System Overview (PASO) application. Protected area and park representation by BEC unit provides a small scale ecosystem classification context for natural resource planning processes such as; management plans, land use zoning, environmental risk assessment, landscape analysis, habitat supply, and management of high priority species. Biogeoclimatic subzones are the basic unit of the BEC system. Subzones are grouped into biogeoclimatic zones to create more generalized units, and subdivided into biogeoclimatic variants and phases to create more specific or climatically homogeneous units. For more information on the BEC system see: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/becweb/. For important warnings about using this data for spatial analysis see the Data Quality section of the metadata

This dataset contains region boundaries which divide the province of Alberta into broad areas of operational administration, with respect to Parks Operations Division responsibilities on parks and protected areas administered by Alberta Environment and Protected Areas. Parks Operations Division Districts nest within Management Areas, which in turn nest within Parks Operations Division Regions. These boundaries are administrative/operational in nature, and are subject to change.

A Public Right Area Object representing the spatial extent of a protected landscape as a result of the public interest or common good. These areas can include habitat, wilderness areas and other special management areas. This cadastral framework provides a parcel base of properly structured vector data designed and suited for Geographical Information System (GIS) application and can be used for land management purposes. This data set is not be used for defining boundaries. Administrative decisions should be based on legal documents and legal survey plans.Distributed from [GeoYukon](https://yukon.ca/geoyukon) by the [Government of Yukon](https://yukon.ca/maps) . Discover more digital map data and interactive maps from Yukon's digital map data collection.For more information: [geomatics.help@yukon.ca](mailto:geomatics.help@yukon.ca)

This dataset contains parks and protected areas managed for important conservation values and are dedicated for the preservation of their natural environments for the inspiration, use and enjoyment of the public. Places of special ecological importance are designated as ecological reserves for scientific research and educational purposes. Source data is Tantalis. *April 18, 2018: Prior to this date this dataset had one spatial boundary per park per survey plan that intersected the boundary of that park. This resulted in multiple identical boundaries for each park that had more than one survey plan overlapping it’s boundaries. The change aggregated the park data so that there is just one boundary per park with the plan numbers concatenated into a single column where each different plan number is separated by a comma.

A Public Right Area Object representing the spatial extent of a protected landscape as a result of the public interest or common good. These areas can include habitat, wilderness areas and other special management areas. This cadastral framework provides a parcel base of properly structured vector data designed and suited for Geographical Information System (GIS) application and can be used for land management purposes. This data set is not be used for defining boundaries. Administrative decisions should be based on legal documents and legal survey plans.Distributed from [GeoYukon](https://yukon.ca/geoyukon) by the [Government of Yukon](https://yukon.ca/maps) . Discover more digital map data and interactive maps from Yukon's digital map data collection.For more information: [geomatics.help@yukon.ca](mailto:geomatics.help@yukon.ca)