The Provincial Parks Act provides for designation of lands to be managed under the Act that are not established as parks/protected areas. These lands are 'declared' under the Provincial Parks (Section 7 Declaration) Regulation, and are legally described in Schedules to the Regulation. Specific provisions of the Act and regulations may be applied to each land parcel declared under section 7 to provide for management of the lands. Section 7 is used to address interim management of lands that have been acquired for park/protected area purposes but are not yet designated, or where activities not permitted in a park/protected area are being managed until such time as the activity is completed and the lands can be designated as a park/protected area. The applicable Ministerial Order is referenced in the 'NOTES' field.

The Parks and Protected Areas dataset contains Parks and Protected Area boundaries for sites administered by the Government of Alberta. National parks, because of their similar intent, are also included. GIS line work representing provincial park/protected area boundaries has been interpreted from written legal descriptions appended to Orders-in-Council granted Royal Assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. In case of discrepancy between the GIS data and the written legal description, the written legal description shall take precedence. The Government of Canada is the authoritative source for GIS boundaries of National Parks. National Park boundaries are included herein for reference, only. GIS line work representing National Park boundaries has been interpreted from written legal descriptions within Schedule 1 of the Canada National Parks Act, and adapted to align with the Alberta Provincial Base Features/Foundational Data collection. Defining document is Canada National Parks Act, Statues of Canada 2000, Chapter 32, Assented to 20th October, 2000. In case of discrepancy between the GIS data and the written legal description, the written legal description shall take precedence. Please note that this dataset replaces the following datasets: Ecological Reserve, Heritage Rangeland, National Park, Natural Area, Provincial Park, Provincial Recreation Area, Wilderness Area, Wilderness Park, and Wildland Park.