Amendment Tracking Number: A unique identifier that MNR assigns to each Crown land use amendment across the province. The format of the amendment tracking number is YYYY-XXX (e.g., 2008-001).
Conservation Reserve: A land use designation made under the authority of the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act 2006. Conservation Reserves are designated to permanently protect ecosystems that are representative of all of Ontario’s natural regions, to protect provincially significant elements of Ontario’s natural and cultural heritage, to maintain biodiversity and provide opportunities for compatible, ecologically sustainable recreation.
Crown Land Disposition: The granting of a property interest in Crown lands, or a right to use Crown land for specific purposes, by means of an Order in Council, Minister's Order, sale, lease, easement, licence of occupation, land use permit, or beach management agreement.
Crown Land Use Amendment: A change to area-specific land use policy.
Dedicated Protected Area: An area of Crown land that is proposed or recommended to become either a provincial park or conservation reserve, but a final decision has not yet been made on the specific designation.
District Land Use Guidelines (DLUGs): Planning documents covering much of Ontario that were approved by MNR in 1983. Although the DLUGs primarily provided direction for the management of Crown lands and resources, they also outlined MNR’s perspective on the management of private lands. For much of Ontario the land use direction for Crown lands and resources outlined in the DLUGs has been almost entirely replaced by the Crown Land Use Policy Atlas. The intention is to formally withdraw all the District Land Use Guidelines when the residual direction in the documents has been housed in an updated location.
Enhanced Management Area (EMA): A land use designation that is used in Crown land planning to provide more detailed land use direction in areas with special features or values or where the land use policies for one of the EMA categories supports the land use intent for the area. There are seven categories of EMAs: natural heritage, recreation, remote access, fish and wildlife, Great Lakes coastal areas, resource-based tourism and intensive forestry. Only the first five have been used in Crown land planning; the later two have not been applied.
Forest Reserve: This designation has been applied to a relatively small number of areas where there are pre-existing mining lands or aggregate permits within recommended or regulated provincial parks and conservation reserves. The intention is that these lands will be added to the park or conservation reserve if a mining claim or lease, or aggregate permit is retired through normal processes.
General Use Area: This designation includes all lands not placed into other specific designations. A full range of resource and recreational uses can occur in General Use Areas managed in the context of maintaining ecological sustainability and supported by an extensive set of legislation, policies and guidelines.
Land Use Designation: Land use designations are geographic-specific land use categories. They have associated sets of land use and management policies that are applied to specific areas. Some land use designations are established in legislation (e.g., provincial park and conservation reserve) while other designations such as enhanced management area have been established through the approval of policy documents.
Land Use Policies: Land use policies include general land use intent as well as permitted and restricted uses in an area (e.g., public road use, new commercial tourism) and selective guidelines associated with some land uses. Policies are derived from legislation, broad government direction, approved policy, and land use and resource management plans.
Ontario’s Living Legacy Land Use Strategy (LUS): A comprehensive strategy approved in 1999 that outlines the intended strategic direction for the management of Crown lands in most of central and mid-northern Ontario. This document included the designation of lands as well as direction on uses permitted within these designations. With the update of the Crown Land Use Policy Atlas in February 2004, Appendix A of the LUS that provided area specific policies is no longer in effect.
Provincial Park: A protected area regulated under the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act 2006. Provincial parks are designated to permanently protect ecosystems that are representative of all of Ontario’s natural regions, to protect provincially significant elements of Ontario’s natural and cultural heritage, to maintain biodiversity and provide opportunities for compatible, ecologically sustainable recreation. Through land use planning, provincial parks are assigned to one of six provincial park classes: wilderness, nature reserve, cultural heritage, natural environment, waterway and recreational.
Recommended Protected Area: Refers to an area for which a land use decision has been made that it should be placed into regulation under a specific piece of legislation, but the regulation has not yet been approved. When the area is regulated the "recommended" label is dropped.
Wilderness Area: Wilderness areas are parcels of Crown land that are regulated under the Wilderness Areas Act, which was passed in 1959 and used to protect a variety of examples of Ontario’s natural heritage outside of the protected areas system.
Modified: January 31, 2007
