Land-use framework regions are a scheme of organizing local governments adopted by the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. Numbering seven in total, each land-use region is named for, and roughly follows the boundary of, a major watershed. Managed by

Alberta Environment and Parks The Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas of Alberta (also commonly called Alberta Environment and Protected Areas) is the Alberta provincial ministry of the Executive Council of Alberta responsible for environmental issues and policy as we ...

, the stated aims of the program are to create a venue for regionwide planning and cooperation, promoting sustainable use of public and private lands. Every region is intended to develop and enact its own comprehensive regional land-use plan, guiding future development within its territory. However, as of 2019, approved plans have only been submitted from two of the seven regions.

History

Land-use planning Land use planning or ''Land-use regulation'' is the process of regulating the use of land by a central authority. Usually, this is done to promote more desirable social and environmental outcomes as well as a more efficient use of resources. ...

has been practiced in various forms by the Alberta government for more than a century. In 1948, the

Manning Manning (a.k.a. Mannion, Manning) is a family name. Origin and meaning Manning is from an old Norse word — manningi — meaning a brave or valiant man; and one of the first forms of the name was Mannin; another cartography was Mannyg ...

government divided the province into a 'green' and 'white' area. The 'Green Area', comprising 61% of Alberta's landmass and mostly owned by the provincial government, was to be managed for forest production, wildlife management, and recreation. The 'White Area', comprising the remaining 39%, was designated for settlement and agriculture. Further plans, some regional in scope, were implemented over the next few decades. For instance, the 1977 ''Policy for Resource Management of the Eastern Slopes'' identified watershed protection and public recreation as higher priorities than non-renewable resource development in Alberta's

Rocky Mountain Foothills The Rocky Mountain Foothills are an upland area flanking the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, extending from the Liard River in British Columbia southward into Alberta. Bordering the Interior Plains system, they are part of the Rocky Mountai ...

. However, these were implemented on a case-by-case basis, and never achieved comprehensive coverage of the province's landmass. By the late 2000s, eight disparate provincial government departments each maintained an individual interest in land use. As facilitating effective Indigenous consultation became another concern of the era, the 2007 Land-use Framework was intended to provide the first-ever formal venue for cooperation between the provincial bureaucracy, its numerous local governments, and all other interested parties.

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{{Reflist Regionalism (politics)

History

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