Metro Vancouver lost equivalent of six Stanley Parks of natural habitat in a decade

Metro Vancouver lost the equivalent of six Stanley Park’s worth of natural habitat in the past decade, according to a report sent to the authority’s regional planning committee.

“The speed and scale of the loss observed is concerning,” Laurie Bates-Frymel, a senior planner at Metro, wrote in the report, adding there was an “urgent need to take collective action” to address the loss of natural habitat.

Metro hopes to increase protected natural lands from 40 to 50 per cent of the regional land base by 2050. The natural habitat lost since 2009 represents roughly 1 1/2 per cent of the region’s land.