Integrated Resource Management in Alberta: Past, Present and Benchmarks for the Future

Abstract

Integrated resource management (IRM) is currently being promoted in Alberta in response to resource-use conflicts and the challenges relating to cumulative environmental effects. The Alberta government's ongoing IRM initiative was launched in 1999. An important component of that initiative has been the development of "regional strategies" in two areas of the province. The release in January 2002 of a draft provincial framework for regional strategies marks an important advance for IRM. If approved and implemented, this framework will lead to additional regional strategies across Alberta. This paper argues that the history of IRM in Alberta provides some important lessons that are directly relevant to the current IRM initiative.