Background
and History
In March, 1996, an inaugural
meeting to discuss research on parks and protected areas
in Ontario was convened by The Heritage Resources Centre,
University of Waterloo; The Frost Centre for Canadian
Heritage and Development Studies; Ontario Parks; and Parks
Canada (Ontario Region). This meeting was held at Buckhorn
Lake near Peterborough. About 50 invited people from government,
business, universities and non-government organizations
attended the meeting and a set of Proceedings was published
(Lawrence and Nelson, 1996). This meeting led to the creation
of the Parks Research Forum of Ontario (PRFO) and to the
establishment of the following goal, objectives and activities.
The goal of PRFO is to encourage
research relating to parks and protected areas and its
application to understanding, planning, management and
decision-making. This goal is to be achieved through the
following objectives:
- Promoting research to
improve understanding, planning, management, and decision-making
for parks and protected areas;
- Encouraging educational
and training activities relating to parks and protected
areas;
- Facilitating more cooperation
in parks and protected areas research;
- Establishing a meeting
place for people involved in parks and protected areas
research;
- Exchanging information
on a regular basis among people involved in parks and
protected areas research; and,
- Monitoring and reporting
on research on parks and protected areas.
A set of activities have
been planed to meet these objectives. These activities
are initial and strategic and could change and evolve
as PRFO grows and evolves. The activities are to:
- Sponsor an annual general
meeting of the PRFO;
- Arrange state-of-the-art
workshops and other meetings which focus on parks and
protected areas research;
- Publish a newsletter
in electronic and paper formats on parks research;
- Conduct research and
publish reports on strategic efforts that advance the
goal of PRFO;
- Fund-raise for purposes
relevant to PRFO activities.
In 1998-1999, PRFO began
to implement these activities. It arranged for the first
annual meeting of PRFO on February 5 and 6, 1998 in Peterborough,
Ontario. About 125 people attended this meeting from federal
and provincial levels of government, universities, non-government
organizations, business and the general public. The second
annual meeting of PRFO was held on April 22 and 23, 1999
in Guelph, Ontario, and was attended by about 145 individuals.
In 2000, PRFO had the opportunity to partner with the
Science and Management of Protected Areas Association
(SAMPAA) for a collaborative conference held at Waterloo,
Ontario. This conference attracted a provincial, national
and international audience of about 400 individuals. This
meeting was followed by the most recent PRFO annual meeting
held at York University, North York, Ontario on May 9
and 10, 2001. This meeting focussed on Ecological Integrity
and Protected Areas and was attended by about 140 individuals.
In this last meeting, PRFO partnered with Ontario Parks
for a special workshop on the proposed Ontario Parks Monitoring
Framework. In 2002, PRFO will be hosting the next meeting
at Ridgetown, Ontario with a program addressing Heritage
Coasts and Protected Areas.
|
