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In addition to Canada’s National Park system, Canadians
are also fortunate to have 13 of the world’s 730 World
Heritage Sites found within our borders. These sites are
deemed to be so special, that their loss would impoverish
humankind.
By using the Atlas Web site, students can start to explore and
learn more about the World Heritage Sites, and the direct
connection that exists between several of the Canadian
parks and the World Heritage Sites. (Explore Our Maps » Environment » Land » World
Heritage Sites Map).
The students will soon realize that, just as natural landscapes
are worthy of preservation, human made or cultural landscapes
are also of significant value and equally deserving of
preservation. From the Read about this Map section of the World
Heritage Map they can discover that the international body in
charge of World Heritage Sites recognizes both natural and cultural
features and landscapes.
Using the Get Info from Map tool above the map, the
students can produce a chart listing each of the 13 Canadian sites,
their location, their classification as either a cultural or natural
site, their size, their year of designation as a heritage site and
use a link directly to a Web site dealing with the each of the 13
heritage sites in order to explore the details of what makes these
heritage sites worthy of international recognition.
Over the past ten years, over 100 new potential World Heritage
sites, within Canada, have been recommended to the federal government.
Ten of these sites will eventually be selected to form Canada’s
tentative list for future consideration as World Heritage Sites.
Students can search to discover what regions of Canada are included
in these potential sites list and what makes them special enough
that their loss would impoverish humankind. The students can also
attempt to decide which 10 are the most important sites.
The World Heritage Sites Map could also be used as a jumping off
point for an examination of other sites throughout the World. Students
could search for answers to questions such as: Are there any other
countries that have 13 sites? Are all countries/continents in the
world represented with at least 1 site? Are there more natural or
cultural sites? Is there a certain number of sites that are desired,
or a certain number to be added each year?
Many of the natural and cultural landscapes are being preserved
through the World Heritage Sites are the types of landscapes that
geography and history courses try to emphasize. The use of this map
to start an activity related to these very special landscapes, would
compliment any regional or world social studies course.
In addition to examining Kejimkujik National Park, students might
study another national park in their region. There is
information regarding every park in Canada on the Parks
Canada Web site, from the Atlas of Canada Web site. There
are also a large number of excellent articles on many
of the national parks in past issues of Canadian
Geographic, usually available in school libraries. Please refer
to the list of references below.
If this activity were to used with a course that involved other
regions of Canada, students could examine Canadian parks from regions
other than Atlantic Canada by making use of the Web site and magazine
mentioned previously.
Additional work on land use and human conflicts associated with
national parks would be very useful. For students in the Atlantic
region especially, the story of the expropriation of land from 239
families in order to create Kouchibouguac National Park is a fascinating
example of human conflict. A useful and readily available reference
for additional information on that story are:
- Comments made by Ms. Angela Vautour in the House
of Commons, Monday Oct 19, 1998, available on line
at www.parl.gc.ca/36/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/137_1998-10-19/han137_1805-e.htm
and www.parl.gc.ca/36/1/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/137_1998-10-19/han137_1810-e.htm
A class debate on the appropriateness of expropriation would be
an interesting method to get the students thinking about
human conflicts associated with national parks. Similarly, class
debates on other topics related to land use conflicts and national
parks would also get the students actively engaged in learning about
our park system. There are also several excellent articles regarding
several of these land use conflicts in past issues of Canadian Geographic listed
in Appendix A (see below). Students could research the new terrestrial and marine parks that
have been announced in order to determine what additional types of
ecosystems are going to be protected. They could also research the
5 natural regions of Canada that do not have existing parks or were
not included in recently announced future parks. The preparation
of short reports regarding what natural features must be included
in each of these future parks, in order for them to be indicative
of the respective natural regions, would be an interesting and challenging
activity.
Provincial and even municipal parks are also very important to
Canadians. Students could research their provinces provincial park
system to learn what their mandates are. Is sustainability an equally
important part of the provincial parks’ mandate?
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