A review of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Parks Canada's Marine Protected Areas Program and their role in Canadian fisheries management

The term "Marine Protected Areas" (MPAs) is a generic phrase which has been used worldwide for over two decades to describe marine reserves, marine parks, marine sanctuaries and marine areas with special protection, although the concept of WAS has been around for nearly a century. MPAs serve many different purposes and are established for a variety of reasons. Essentially, they are regions that have been reserved by law to protect all, or parts, of a designated marine environment.;This paper will review the development of MPAs from an international perspective, and will also review the role of two federal protected area programs in Canada, Parks Canada's National Marine Conservation Areas program (NMCA) and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Marine Protected Areas program, in advancing marine conservation in an efficient and effective manner. In this paper the DFOs MPA and Parks Canada's NMCA programs will be integrated and referred to by the generic term MPAs. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).