Ecological integrity is the cornerstone of Banff National Park and the key to its future. It also recognizes that the park is a place for people and a place for heritage tourism. Tourism gave birth to this park, and it will always be a place to visit, to experience, and to learn. We now know that this can only be done if we preserve the ecological integrity of the park. The park is also a place for community and a place for environmental stewardship.
Residents take a special pride in living in the park.
And Canadians have a special responsibility to be mindful of wildlife when they travel within or through the park's boundaries. The challenge is to find the proper way to do so in the park so that it can remain a wonderful oasis of incredible beauty and a model for sustainable use practices. The Banff National Park Management Plan requires all Canadians to understand that the stresses and strains of human development cannot be allowed to snap back and injure the wild places we are pledged to protect in Banff National Park. It requires us to make open, transparent decisions on the park, and to make decisions that prohibit human use whenever and wherever it can be demonstrated that such use will cause severe environmental consequences. The Plan makes sure that we do things a lot more cautiously, and with a lot more foresight.