Tourism Potential

Tourism, and especially eco-tourism, is growing by leaps and bounds in B.C.  That’s both a blessing and a curse. 

·          Tourism can itself have profound impacts on the environment.  See the Guide Page on protecting the environment from Tourism

·          Tourism can create an economic incentive to protecting aesthetic and environmental features of the natural landscape. 

This page of the Guide is about tools for protecting tourism potential, rather than protecting against tourism.  The Guide does not provide direction about how to plan urban areas conducive to tourism, but concentrates on tools to protect natural areas for recreational purposes.

Setting Land Aside for Recreation

The easiest way to protect a particular area for recreational use in an undeveloped or largely undeveloped form is to exclude or limit development in the area – parks being the best known example.  There are several different types of parks:

·          National Parks created by the federal government and administered under the Canada National Parks Act.  Under the Act, the federal Minister of Parks must develop a Park Management Plan;

·          Provincial Parks, created and administered by the provincial government under the provincial Parks Act;

·          Regional Parks, created by the provincial government, but administered by a Regional Park District set up for that purpose under the Park (Regional) Act;

·          Municipal Parks, created and administered by local government under the Local Government Act;

Typically (although not always) the above order reflects the size of the respective types of parks (e.g. National Parks are generally larger than provincial parks, etc.) 

There are other types of land-use designations that set aside land for recreational use.  The Land-Use Designations page has a more comprehensive list of possible land-use designations, including those used for purposes other than protecting tourism/recreation options, but here are some recreation-based designations:

·          Heritage Sites and Trails, designated by the provincial Minister of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services, under the Heritage Conservation Act;

·          Recreation Areas are created under the province’s Park Act but have less formal protection than a Park;

·          Recreation Site or Areas are designated under the Forest Practices Code but are currently being phased out; and

·          First Nations land designations – First Nations have experimented with creating parks and other land use designations on the basis of their own right to self-government.  It is uncertain what legal effect this type of designation has, but in light of court cases concerning aboriginal title it is likely that in some cases these designations do have legal effect. 

In addition, a commercial tourism operation could seek to obtain formal approval under the Land Act granting a commercial right to carry on tourism in an area in question.  A lease, licence or grant of this type could, depending on its wording, give the tourism operator some rights to prevent development which is inconsistent with the tourism operations. 

Aesthetic View

Protecting a particular area for recreational/tourism use may be easier, in theory, than protecting the viewscape from a town or key tourism area.  Tourists do not usually enjoy seeing clearcuts or ugly development dotting the horizon. 

In an urban area local government may be able to exercise some control over viewscape through its zoning by-laws and other restrictions on development height and density, etc. See the Guide page on the Local Government Act for more information. 

On provincially owned “Crown Land” the government can set “visual quality objectives” through Sustainable Resource Management Planning.  Logging plans being developed under the Forest and Range Practices Act must respect Visual Quality Objectives and the objectives will be considered in planning for other industries.  

Related Guide Pages:

·          Tourism Development.

 

For more information on Protecting Tourism Potential:

·          Parks Canada website.

·          BC Parks website.

·          Ministry of Forests Visual Impact Assessment Guidebook.