Zoning in national parks: are Canadian zoning practices outdated?

Zoning is a common tool in protected areas, especially for visitor management purposes. Parks Canada has a long-established national zoning framework for all national parks. At the operational level, planners use this framework to spatially delineate each park into areas with varying levels of ecological integrity and human activity. After Parks Canada's recent major restructuring, and a new streamlined management planning process embedded in ecosystem management, it is important to examine if, or to what extent, zoning is effective in advancing the agency's goals. We interviewed Parks Canada employees about their perspectives on zoning. In their perception, the rigid definition of zones, fundamental differences between southern and northern parks, and the coexistence of the historical zoning framework with modern management policies constituted major challenges at the national or constitutive level. At the operational level, they were concerned about a status quo bias in zoning, purposeful delays in implementing zoning, and the absence of explicit evaluation of park zoning processes and outcomes. Zoning remains a necessary, albeit not central, component of the management planning process, but provides only crude spatial direction for core management activities. The relevance of zoning for other parks, and for sustainable tourism strategies is discussed.