Metro Vancouver is tracking the protection status of natural spaces over time to inform land use and parkland acquisition decisions. The Regional Protected Natural Areas dataset is compiled by Metro Vancouver using various data sources to track the area of land protected for nature. Metro 2050 has a target to increase the areas of lands protected for nature from 40% to 50% of the region’s land base by the year 2050.
To calculate the baseline area protected for nature, Metro Vancouver used a dataset from 2013 that includes federal, provincial, and municipal parks, terrestrial-based wildlife management areas, ecological reserves, regional parks, watersheds, the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, and Buntzen Lake Recreation Area, as well as the University of British Columbia (UBC) Malcolm Knapp and BCIT research forests.
Key performance measure
Metro 2050 establishes the performance measure as the change in hectares of land protected for nature across the region. The target is to increase the area of lands protected for nature from 40% to 50% of the region's land base by the year 2050.
Progress
This is a key performance measure in Metro 2050. An update to the Regional Protected Natural Areas dataset is planned in 2025.