Evaluating the capacity of Canadian and American legislation to implement terrestrial protected areas networks

Coarse and fine scale ecological criteria were derived that represent vital features of protected area networks for biodiversity conservation. The criteria were used as a blueprint to assess the capacity of legislation to create an ecologically functional Algonquin–Adirondack protected area network in Ontario and New York State. International treaties, national laws, and provincial and state laws and their regulations, were analyzed to determine if they contained provisions for incorporating the ecological criteria into conservation networks.In Canada, the Canada National Parks Act and the Species at Risk Act could be used to create protected areas networks, if their regulations were amended appropriately. The Ontario Planning Act was the only provincial act with limited capacity to implement some of the ecological criteria. Neither American federal law nor New York State law showed any capacity to enable protected area network development. However, if the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act were to be enacted, provision for creating large-scale ecological networks would exist. New legislation should reflect, explicitly, the ecological criteria that ensure that networks fulfill their roles over the long term. Any new legislation should be harmonized across the different jurisdictions involved, as in recent western European cases, to promote network creation at large geographic scales.