Little fish lake provincial park campsite

This is a list of protected areas of Alberta. Protected areas are managed by the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-i ...

or the

Government of Alberta The government of Alberta (french: gouvernement de l'Alberta) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Alberta. As a constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor—is ...

. The provincial government owns 60% of Alberta's landmass but most of this has not been formally protected. The total protected area throughout Alberta including federal and provincial protected areas is approximately . __TOC__

International recognition

Six of Canada's 14

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

s are entirely or partially located in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

: *

Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site is located in the Canadian Rockies. It consists of seven contiguous parks including four national parks: * Banff *Jasper * Kootenay * Yoho and three British Columbia provincial parks: * Hamb ...

(shared with

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

) *

Dinosaur Provincial Park Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated a two hour drive east of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; or , about a half-hour drive northeast of Brooks. The park is situated in the Red Deer River valley, which is noted for its stri ...

* Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump * Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (shared with

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

) *

Wood Buffalo National Park Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest national park of Canada at . It is located in northeastern Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories. Larger in area than Switzerland, it is the second-largest national park in the world. The park w ...

(shared with

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

) *

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park is located about southeast of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, or east of the community of Milk River, and straddles the Milk River itself. It is one of the largest areas of protected prairie in the Alberta park sy ...

Alberta also contains the following UNESCO Biosphere Reserves * Waterton Biosphere Reserve (since 1979) * Beaver Hills Biosphere Reserve (since 2016)

Federally protected areas

Five National Parks of Canada ( Banff, Elk Island,

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref ...

, Waterton Lakes and Wood Buffalo), managed by

Parks Canada Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...

are located in the province. Several former national parks (such

Buffalo National Park Buffalo National Park was created near the town of Wainwright in east central Alberta on . It was closed in and delisted in 1947 when the land was transferred to the Department of National Defence. The park land was developed for use by Canadi ...

, Wawaskesy National Park, and Nemiskam National Park) formerly existed in

, but were delisted in 1947. There are several

National Historic Sites of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as bein ...

in Alberta, but only two are operated by Parks Canada:

Rocky Mountain House Rocky Mountain House is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately west of Red Deer at the confluence of the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan Rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail) and Highway 11 (David T ...

, which features an indoor interpretation centre and year-round in-person interpretation, and

Frog Lake Frog Lake may refer to: * Frog Lake, Alberta, a Cree community in Canada, site of the ** Frog Lake Massacre The Frog Lake Massacre was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. Led by Wandering Spirit, young ...

which has only outdoor interpretive panels to mark the site. Alberta is also home to Suffield National Wildlife Area, a protected area within the military reserve at CFB Suffield.

Provincially protected areas

There are several different departments and agencies that deal with land use in Alberta, however Alberta's provincial parks are managed by

Alberta Parks Alberta Parks is an agency of the Government of Alberta which is responsible for managing Alberta's provincial parks and protected areas. History Alberta's system of provincial parks began with the striking of a committee on parks by then Premier ...

, which since 2022 is part of the Ministry of Forestry, Parks and Tourism whose mandate is to protect the province's natural landscapes in

, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas. Seven categories of protection exist, provincial parks being one. These categories are:
Ecological reserves

Wilderness areas

Wildland provincial parks

Provincial parks

Natural areas

Heritage rangelands

Provincial recreation areas
, the province of

managed 76 provincial parks, 32 wildland provincial parks, 208 provincial recreation areas, 15 ecological reserves, 3 wilderness areas, 139 natural areas and 2 heritage rangeland. Although these areas are the responsibility of the

government, private companies have been contracted to handle various aspects of the operation of many parks (e.g. maintenance and campground operation).

List of wilderness areas

Wilderness areas have the strictest level of protection, no development of any kind is permitted, and travel is only permitted by foot. * Ghost River Wilderness Area *

Siffleur Wilderness Area The Siffleur Wilderness Area is a provincially designated wilderness area in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta. It was established in 1961 and it, as one of the three wilderness areas of Alberta, has the strictest form of government protection ava ...

* White Goat Wilderness Area *

Willmore Wilderness Park Willmore Wilderness Park, located in Alberta, Canada, is a wilderness area adjacent to Jasper National Park. It is lesser known and less visited than Jasper National Park. There are no public roads, bridges or buildings. There are, however, seve ...

List of provincial parks

Other parks

* Birch Mountains Wildland (wildland) * Caribou Mountains Wildland Park (wildland) * Chinchaga Wildland Park (wildland) * Dillon River Wildland Park (wildland) * Fidler-Greywillow Wildland Park (wildland) *

Gipsy-Gordon Wildland Park Gipsy-Gordon Wildland Park is a wildland provincial park in northern Alberta, Canada that is in size. It is located in the northeast portion of the province within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, encompassing lands south of the Clearw ...

(wildland) *

Hay-Zama Lakes Hay-Zama Lakes is a inland wetland and wildland park in northwestern Alberta, Canada. It was designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance on May 24, 1982, and is recognized as an Important Bird Area. It "constitutes one of the most ...

(wildland) *

Kakwa Wildlands Park Kakwa Wildland Park is a provincial park in the Rocky Mountain Foothills just east of the northern Canadian Rockies, in Alberta, Canada, immediately east of the border with British Columbia at the 120th meridian west. The park is home to Albert ...

(wildland) * Kananaskis Country (not a park but a provincially run tract of land containing several parks) * Kazan Wildland Park (wildland) * Richardson Wildland Park (wildland)

Other provincial lands

Approximately 60% of land in Alberta is public land owned by the Alberta government.
For administrative purposes, the province is divided into two broad land use areas: the Green Area (forested land, almost entirely provincially owned) and the White Area (other). The

Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve The Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve is a tract of land owned by the government of Canadian province of Alberta (called "Crown land") along the eastern slopes and foothills of the Albertan section of the Canadian Rockies. It is a long strip of land ...

was created by the Forest Reserves Act of 1964.
There are also 32 provincial grazing reserves located throughout Alberta. They are administered by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

Municipal parks

References

External links

About Alberta's ParksAlberta Parks -list of provincial parksAlberta Community Development - Parks and Protected Areas Land Reference Manual
{{Canada topic, List of protected areas of, Protected areas of Canada *

Protected areas