Boundary delineation of wilderness and ecological reserves in Newfoundland

Description

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador passed the Wilderness and Ecological Reserves (WER) Act on May 28, 1980. Through the establishing of this act, the government formally recognized the need to protect a portion of the province’s wildlands for future enjoyment. This legislation has provided the basis for site selection and reserve protection through a Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Program. The strengths and weaknesses of the WER Program are reviewed in this report with particular emphasis placed on the need for, and use of, information in selecting reserve boundaries. Though a case study, the ABC Resource Survey procedures are applied to site selection and an attempt is made to incorporate Geographical information System (GIS) technology in the process. The results of the case study demonstrated how both the ABC methodology and GIS can be included in the reserve selection procedures, however, the quality of information presently available for applying this procedure is poor.