Getting to 30% Protected Areas

In response to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity call for expanded global protected areas, in 2020, Canada committed to a two-stage expansion of our protected areas system that would bring the country to 30% protected by the 2030 deadline. The federal budget invested $3.2 billion, over five years, to establish new terrestrial and marine protected areas across Canada, including in Nova Scotia, protecting wildlife, boosting vital industries like tourism, and safeguarding our communities from the worst effects of climate change. To help Canada reach this important goal and to deliver on the promises of our own Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act, the provincial government committed to increasing protected areas to 20% by 2030.

In 2023, the government of Nova Scotia reaffirmed this commitment by signing the $28.5 million Canada-Nova Scotia Nature Agreement with the federal government, unlocking an amazing amount of funding for meaningful conservation efforts in a province that boasts both globally rare and important ecosystems and a multi-billion dollar tourism industry. The agreement specified that Nova Scotia could use the funds to add 82,500 hectares (203,862 acres) to its protected and conserved areas by an interim deadline of March 2026. This would “result in protection for close to 15% of the province’s land mass” and create “a pathway to [achieving] the provincial goal of 20% by 2030, by supporting and accelerating processes that enhance land use planning.” It also required the province to produce regular reports in plain language so that the public could track progress toward the 20% goal and see how funds are being spent.

In the years since, however, the Nova Scotia government has done little to move the needle forward and, given lacking strategy, the abundance of candidate areas still waiting for protection, how many of these areas are pending petroleum or mining rights discussions, and the province’s seeming unwillingness to work with Nova Scotians advocating for the protection of their local wilderness, we are concerned that the province has given up on this important goal. In March 2026, the Nova Scotia government defaulted on its funding agreement with the federal government, failing to meet interim 15% target, and ended up having to return $5 million for its failure.

specklebelly lichen — Specklebelly lichen (Pseudocyphellaria holarctica), an uncommon fungi-algae symbiont and indicator of mature, undisturbed forest, spotted by NatureNS Executive Director Becky Parker inside Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area. BMBCL benefited from a parcel addition in 2021 shortly after the province committed to protecting 20% by 2030. The area is still under threat by suburban sprawl and plans to construct a new highway.

Help Us "Keep It Wild"

Intact wildernesses boost our economy and protect our communities. Get informed, learn about the pending protected areas near you, and engage your representatives on this important issue. Check out the sections below for more on how our protected areas system works, where gaps are leaving people and wildlife vulnerable, and who exactly we’re fighting to make change:

Protected Areas In Nova Scotia

Protected areas come about in a myriad of ways. Some provincial parks are older than the Provincial Parks Act, having been used as roadside picnic areas for decades before they were actually managed as multipurpose parks. Before wilderness areas were managed as wilderness areas they were just, well, wilderness. Nova Scotia’s protected areas system has evolved from early, sporadic conservation efforts to a comprehensive network of parcels now contributing to wider conservation and recreation goals. In the 1990s, the government of Nova Scotia formally committed to completing a comprehensive system of parks and protected areas which represented landscape diversity and set to work inventorying natural areas and prioritizing areas for conservation. In 2013, following guidance from initiatives like the Colin Stewart Forest Forum and rounds of in depth public consultation, it released the Parks and Protected Areas Plan, which identified hundreds of candidate parcels for protection and set out a timeline for their protection. This is still the guiding plan that directs much protected areas work at the provincial level in Nova Scotia.

Today, there are several kinds of protected areas in Nova Scotia, each afforded varying degrees of protection and allowances for different kinds of use and even economic activities. This diversity may make public land protection vulnerable to misinformation. In fact, in 2021, following the success of misinformation campaigns targeting the Biodiversity Act, forestry lobbyists concerned about pending protections for the Ingram River area set to work spreading misinformation about the Parks and Protected Areas Plan and the process for protecting Nova Scotia’s wild spaces. They went so far as to say that Nova Scotians would lose access to the Ingram if it was formally protected when, in reality, the businesses they were representing wanted to clearcut it. In the years since, mining industry lobbyists have also repeatedly attacked the protected areas system, citing dubious economic reports and seemingly unaware of the importance of the protected areas system to other, often more valuable, industries like commercial fishing and eco-tourism.

Here’s a quick overview of what kinds of protected areas exist in Nova Scotia, how they are managed, by who, and what exactly they are protecting:

Protected On Paper

Unfortunately, many protected areas in Nova Scotia are not as protected as the public assumes. By 2020, the last deadline for protecting all of the candidate areas in the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan, there were still hundreds of protected areas pending official designation. Many of these areas are still not protected today. Owl’s Head Provincial Park, long assumed to be officially protected, was secretly delisted from the Parks and Protected Areas Plan in 2019 and nearly sold off to a private developer before action from local citizens saved the area. In 2022, the province entertained yet another proposal from the Cabot Group to build a golf course at West Mabou Beach Provincial Park, and citizens again had to come to the rescue. Almost unbelievably, in 2025, the province again entertained the possibility of leasing West Mabou Beach to the Cabot Group, hiding the corporations’ formal application for the park from citizens while the Minister of Natural Resources, Kim Masland, insisted government was “just having conversations” with the developer. The province only announced that it would not further discussions with Cabot under much public pressure.

Loopholes, Lobbyists, & Lies

Whether or not and how Nova Scotians should have been consulted before the attempted sale at Owls Head or development deal at West Mabou Beach remains uncertain. Owls Head wasn’t technically a provincial park when the province tried to sell it, having been identified as a candidate park waiting for protection in the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan but confusingly listed as a provincial park just about anywhere you could find the park’s name. Pending protected areas are, however, protected under an interim policy while they await official designation, so it is reasonable that Nova Scotians expected the area was (or should have been) safe from backroom corporate deals. It was only after CBC journalist Michael Gorman obtained a Freedom of Information request that the public learned of the secretive delisting of Owls Head Provincial Park from the Parks and Protected Areas Plan and many Nova Scotians were surprised to learn that the park wasn’t really a park, or was sort of a park?

Our nature network went to court over that very question in 2020, when former Nature Nova Scotia President Bob Bancroft and our member organization Eastern Shore Forest Watch argued that government had a duty to consult with the public before agreeing to sell the parcel, even though it was not technically designated yet and only a park in name alone. Justice Christa Brothers decided that such a “public trust doctrine” respecting public lands was not the kind of “incremental change to the common law that [the] court [was] permitted to make”, instead suggesting that if citizens had a problem with any politicians’ decisions they should voice as much at the polls. The Liberal government was shortly after replaced by the current Progressive Conservative government.

It can also be difficult to get new protected areas designated in Nova Scotia. In 2021, the province reached its previous 13% land protection goal with the addition of 80 new sites, including the protection of mature forests of the Sackville River Wilderness Area in Upper Sackville and an expansion for Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area. This helped address a large gap left in the Parks and Protected Areas Plan, which had over 100 sites still waiting for protection at the time. These gains were hard-won though.

Take the Ingram River for example…

The Ingram River area is a matrix of public and private lands supporting some of the most pristine wilderness left on St. Margarets Bay, including old forests, habitat for many provincially and federally listed species at risk, and some of the best hiking, hunting, and fishing opportunities in the Halifax area. Locals have been trying to get it protected for years. Additions to the existing protected parcels along the Ingram River were released for consultation in Fall 2021 and immediately faced a misinformation campaign by WestFor Management Inc, which happened to operate a crown logging lease in the area. WestFor suggested through their Facebook presence and a news interview that, under protection, the Nova Scotian public would no longer be able to access the area, despite government openness to ATV and snowmobile use and the fact that all Nova Scotians have the legislated right to access forested lands for many purposes. This narrative comes up again and again when big forestry interests are threatened by conservation initiatives.

Ingram River protected areas as proposed in 2021, taken from NSDNRR online public consultation

The proposal for the Ingram River included the addition of lands to the existing South Panuke Wilderness Area, designation of the new Island Lake Wilderness Area, creation of a special management zone along the Ingram River waterway, and protection of additional lands under the Old Forest Policy. The South Panuke Wilderness Area addition was part of a volume-based crown forestry license. Now protected, government amended its license with the company to remove these lands (and only these lands) from the license. The northern side of the proposed wilderness area addition bordered on a large block of public land that is part of the Mi’kmaw Forestry Initiative (MFI). This is a forestry pilot project that gives the Mi’kmaq forest planning and management responsibility on designated public parcels, through the guiding principles of Netukulimk, and it is unaffected by the new protected areas designations. The 888ha Special Management Zone (SMZ) proposed for the valley corridor would not allow for forestry activities. This area forms a thin buffer around watercourses, wetlands, and other sensitive habitats that are inappropriate for forestry operations anyway. The areas added under the Old Forest Policy included 54ha of old-growth and near old-growth forest. This hectarage was so small compared to the rest of the proposed conservation lands that it could not reasonably be considered to negatively impact forestry interests. It will, however, significantly benefit the conservation of declining old forest species in the area.

As for recreational access, all Nova Scotians have the legislated right to cross forested land for the purpose of fishing and hunting, especially public land, including Ingram River. Wilderness Area also allow for hunting, fishing, and even ATV use in designated areas. In fact, the Department of Environment and Climate Change had already indicated that it would amend existing provincial trail management agreements with the All Terrain Vehicle Association of Nova Scotia (ATVANS) and Snowmobilers Association of Nova Scotia (SANS) to allow continued ATV and snowmobile use on essential connecting routes through the proposed Island Lake Wilderness Area, which is the larger of the two in this example at Ingram River.

All together, the protection of the Ingram River was a very small step towards better conservation of an area that supports 18 confirmed species at risk and provides countless dollars in ecosystem goods and services every year, including through Mi’kmaw-led industry. The only Nova Scotians who didn’t benefit from the new Ingram River designations were those who wanted to clearcut it.

Where Do We Stand Today?

After slow but steady progress protecting public lands identified in the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan, the province suspiciously stopped designating new protected areas for several months in 2024, leaving many of these pending parcels unprotected. In the time since, most designations have been small additions to existing wilderness areas – by no means unimportant, but much less than what is needed. The Nova Scotia government also has not produced any of the reports required as part of the federal funding agreement. As of summer 2026, Nova Scotia is sitting at just 14% protected lands, less than 4 years away from the 2030 deadline for protecting 20%. At this rate, Nova Scotia won’t reach 20% land protection until 2041, if ever…

As we wait for the province to pick up the slack or, at minimum, provide a reason for the lack of action, we are increasingly concerned that the delay may be intentional. Some of the 2013 Parks and Protected Areas Plan parcels that are still unprotected are listed as “delayed” due to “addressing mineral” and “petroleum rights,” or “wood supply,” issues that ought to have been resolved by 2020 according to the plan, or surely before 2026! Our elected officials have adopted extremist communications tactics villainizing scientists and other environmental experts, dismissing dissenting voices as “professional protesters,” and intentionally mischaracterizing small business owners, hunters, guides, and other regular citizens as unreasonable, extreme environmentalists. We think the province is intentionally delaying formal protection for these public lands so that industry can take what they want from public lands, first.

Nature Nova Scotia staff joined over 50 other environmental, tourism and recreation, and religious organizations at Ecology Action Centre’s Protected Areas Press Conference in July to voice our concerns:

Citizens Step Up To Fill The Gaps

While the province drags its feet, Nova Scotians are stepping up to protect local wildernesses through citizen science, petition signing, and direct action. Nova Scotia doesn’t have a formal process for protecting community-proposed protected areas, so citizens have had to advocate to their local wildernesses in varying ways and with varying success.

When the province released the new Collaborative Protected Areas Strategy in 2023, intended to act as a guide towards achieving the 20% by 2030 goal, there was no commitment to include citizens in the planning stage of the province’s existing land protection process. Considering that the province also didn’t identify any of its own new candidate protected areas through this “strategy”, many in the natural history community were left wondering what the document even existed for. This is a serious gap, as local citizens often have useful information about public lands that can benefit land use planning and management, but also because public buy-in is essential for maintaining the environmental and cultural values protected areas are protected for in the first place.

Check out a few of the places locals are trying to protect – through citizen science work documenting old forests and species at risk occurrences, through petition signing, and direct action:

Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes, Urban Halifax

The Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Regional Park is a conceptual protected area and existing assortment of various protected parcels each under different jurisdiction on the edge Halifax. Made up of native Acadian forests, wetlands and an inter-connected system of headwater lakes, Ecology Action Centre and locals have described it as a miniature Kejimkujik National Park. The area has been identified as an important area for wildlife conservation and public recreation since at least the 1970s when the Metropolitan Area Planning Committee identified it as a protection priority. The municipality would later add it to a list of potential Regional Parks and start protecting parcels, the province would designate areas as Wilderness Areas, and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust acquired private lands to add to the shared regional park vision. In August 2021, a statement of collaboration was signed between Halifax Regional Municipality and Parks Canada National Urban Parks Program to create a National Urban Park. Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes is one of four sites shortlisted across Canada for this designation. In 2023, Friends of Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes developed a position paper that identifies challenges facing the wilderness area; making recommendations for the future. It also makes recommendations for park planning. You can help the Friends of Blue Mountain and Ecology Action Centre advocate for the protection of this important urban wilderness by engaging with your councilor or reminding your MP of your support for the National Urban Park program.

Chain Lakes Wilderness Area, Kings Co.

The Blomidon Naturalists Society is proposing a new wilderness area for public land in southwest Kings County. The southwest corner of Kings County is the only major section of public land in the County that remains largely forested without human habitation. To date, there has been little opportunity or process for citizens to suggest public lands for formal protection. Take action today and help BNS protect this last wilderness.

Goldsmith Lake, Annapolis Co.

The forests surrounding Goldsmith Lake are old, diverse, and support 95 confirmed species at risk. The Citizen Scientists of Southwest Nova Scotia submitted a proposal to the Dept. of Environment and Climate Change to protect an area of 3900 ha of Crown land surrounding Goldsmith Lake in 2022 and have since managed to fight off attempts at forest harvest by documenting old forest and species at risk occurrences the provincial government insisted didn’t exist. Help the Citizen Scientists and Save Our Old Forests get this forest protected by signing onto their petition.

Ingram River Wilderness Area, Halifax Co.

The proposed Ingram River Wilderness Area is a treasured community wilderness on the outskirts of Halifax, containing beautiful canoe routes, the oldest hemlock tree on record, and several resident species at risk. The province bought back the Ingram River area after the collapse of the Bowater Mersey Paper Company and much public encouragement to turn the public lands into either community forest and/or protected area. Instead, the province protected just a quarter of the area and continues to allow unsuitable high volume forest harvests in wilderness that should be protected or, at minimum, more sustainably managed. Locals want to give this area second chance – a chance to recover, where forests can grow old again and wildlife can return. Help the St. Margarets Bay Stewardship Association and allies protect Ingram River from corporate capture and government inaction.

Sandy Lake Park, Urban Halifax

The Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park is a conceptual protected area nestled inside urban Bedford that supports several significant freshwater bodies and rare old forest ecosystems. This rare wild refuge inside Atlantic Canada’s largest city spans much of northern Bedford between the 102 and Hammonds Plains Rd into North Kingswood, near Lucasville, and supports some of the last mature forests in the city core. Much of Sandy Lake is still awaiting legal protection. In 2022, the province identified Sandy Lake as an area they would fast-track desperately needed housing development, despite existing plans and municipal support to finish the Regional Park and outcry from scientists, hobby naturalists, and the public. Write to the Premier, your MLA, and municipal councilor and ask them to finally protect this rare wild gem in the city.

Take Action

1) Explore the new Protected Areas Map to find existing and pending protected areas near you and check out some of those community-nominated protected areas and overlapping resource extraction plans government doesn’t want you to see…

2) Engage your MLA. Tell the Nova Scotia government to designate all remaining pending protected areas in the now out-of-date Parks and Protected Areas Plan and get to work on a robust new plan for achieving 20% by 2030. Write a letter, pick up the phone, or make an appointment to speak to your representative in person. Prepare for a disappointing response and be ready to follow up. Did you get a generic response reiterating the province’s supposed commitment to nature protection and detailing what they have done? Focus your response on clarifying questions like “Why have no large protected areas been designated in the last year?” “Who, specifically, are you engaging in your work to move [your local pending protected area] towards official protection?”, and “Do you mean to say that government has no intention to release a full 20% Protected Areas Plan, incorporating citizen knowledge and desires for community-nominated protected areas?” Remind them that small business operators like fishing guides and tour companies rely on the protected areas system and that a recent poll conducted by Narrative Research reaffirmed that a strong majority (67%) of Nova Scotians want the government to protect more wilderness, even when weighed against other considerations like resource extraction and industrial use, and that 80% of Nova Scotians oppose private development in protected areas.

Need some template messaging? Check these out:

Protect Ingram River Wilderness template – by St Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association

Protect The Chain Lakes Wilderness Area Template – by NS Forests Forever

Update The NS Provincial Parks Act, No More Back Room Deals – by Nature Nova Scotia

3) Contact your MP and tell them you support the 30% by 2030 national protected areas goal.