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| North Wallace River and Salt Marshes, Wallace Bay National Wildlife Area, Nova Scotia. Photo – Andrew McFarlane |
- protects some 11.8 million hectares, an area more than twice the size of Nova Scotia
- contains a wide diversity of habitat of national and even international importance
- safeguards 1.5 million hectares of Canada's aquatic habitat
Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) identifies nationally important wildlife habitat whose loss would have a direct impact on the Canadian population of one or more wild species. Environment Canada works closely with other federal agencies, provincial and territorial governments, Aboriginal peoples, private organizations, and individuals to ensure that nationally important areas are protected as:
- National Wildlife Areas (NWAs) (51 sites)
- Migratory Bird Sanctuaires (MBSs) (92 sites)
- Marine Wildlife Areas (MWAs) (1 site proposed)
Some conservation areas have onsite facilities to view wildlife. However, many of these areas are managed for wild species only, excluding people intentionally. In some cases, CWS prohibits visitors during critical periods, such as when birds are nesting or moulting (the losing and replacing of all or part of their feathers each year). Other NWAs and MBSs are closed to the public seasonally or permanently for numerous reasons, including geographical inaccessibility and wildlife preservation.
There is more information on the protected areas in the Hinterland Who's Who fact sheet Environment Canada's Protected Areas Network.
A Web Map Service (WMS), viewable only in WMS client applications (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Map_Service for a partial list of client applications), and an associated Web Feature Service (WFS) of CWS Protected Areas, are available at: http://pubmap.on.ec.gc.ca/ec-ows/ec-ows_en.asp.
A KML version of CWS Protected Areas information, along with that from other Federal, Provincial and Territorial jurisdictions, can be found on the Canadian Council of Ecological Areas website. This can be viewed in Earth browsers such as Google Earth.
