Banff National Park has special designation as World Heritage Site
by Amanda Follett
What does Banff National Park have in common with Confucius' tomb, the Vatican City and Timbuktu?
Banff begins a chain of protected areas, known as the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, whose exquisite beauty and natural heritage has won itself a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. While the special status may not directly affect the way the protected area is treated, Parks Canada wears the title like a badge of honour.
"It means it's amongst the crème de la crème, globally," says Mike Murtha, planner for Banff National Park.
To fuel latent wanderlust, scroll through UNESCO's website. It contains a long list of places pivotal to the Earth's history and embedded in culture so innate it seems almost mythical. As Murtha points out, the status puts the Canadian Rockies in a league with the Grand Canyon and Africa's Serengeti.
Banff National Park may not be well known for its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but those who visit quickly come to appreciate the natural beauty in all directions. Peaceful riverside spots like this are just a few minutes' drive from the heart of downtown Banff.
The chain of seven parks that make up the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks is known worldwide. It comprises the adjoining Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho national parks, as well as the Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks. Apart from boasting stunning mountain peaks, glacier-fed lakes and thundering canyons, the area is also home to Canada's national parks system.
It was Banff's own Cave and Basin hot springs that brought the need for protected areas to the attention of the Canadian government in the mid-1880s. When two railway workers discovered the hot springs, it took only a few years before the area became Canada's first park preserve in 1885 and the first national park in the world. Today, visitors flock from around the world to visit the springs and enjoy the surrounding pristine wilderness.
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The Town of Banff, the commercial hub and tourist centre of Banff National Park, offers visitors not only great shopping and dining in its downtown, but the kind of spectacular views that solidified the park's place on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
For 25 years, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has compiled their list of natural and cultural wonders to promote protection and preservation. Individual countries are invited to bring nominations to the committee and 20 to 40 sites are added to the list each year.
According to Murtha, being on UNESCO's list doesn't affect the park's mandate, as UNESCO's standards are in keeping with self-imposed guidelines set for any Canadian protected area. In developing countries, however, the program is committed to maintaining the site, through financial help if needed.
Parks Canada has never actively endorsed the area as a UNESCO site, primarily because the Rockies' reputation stands on its own, Murtha says. But as the UNESCO program begins to gain momentum, he expects Parks will more actively promote the status. Those living in Canmore can find internationally renowned and protected wild lands right in their backyards - they don't have to go to, well, Timbuktu to find them. Apart from the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, Alberta is home to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Dinosaur Provincial Park, both of which are also listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Burgess Shale fossil site, well known for its remains of soft-bodied marine animals, was at one time part of the list, but is now considered part of Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks.
Amanda Follett is a Canmore-based freelance writer who spends as much time as possible enjoying the outdoors by foot, mountain bike and on her trusty snowboard.
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