First of all, I think it's important to acknowledge at this moment that part of the reason the country has achieved so much in terms of conservation is because of the leadership of a gentleman we just lost, Mr. Jim Prentice. He brought to his portfolio tremendous leadership, which resulted in things like the sixfold expansion of Nahanni and the protection of Gwaii Haanas in the marine environment. In fact, Madam Chair, he exhibited a focus on exactly what this committee is looking at, and that is the involvement of indigenous people, and he accomplished much because of that. Our condolences to all parliamentarians on his passing.
I will not pretend to speak for CPAWS, but I think what you're hearing in part is a focus on a number of developments in the mountain parks. The mountain parks, throughout the history of national parks, have been a focus for a range of controversies, but I think you need to stand back and look at the entire system. I think we're quite proud of what we have accomplished in terms of what we've done with indigenous people, be it in the Torngat Mountains, the Mealy Mountains, and across the country. The number of advisory boards and management boards is growing tremendously.
In terms of our programs, when we looked at them, we had ramped up in the early 2000s. In 2012, it was time to move from a development phase on species at risk and ecological integrity into an implementation phase. The number of natural science professionals did drop by 30%. However, to compare it to now, as a result of a number of targeted investments and initiatives where we have hired staff to deal with a number of things, such as impact assessment of infrastructure projects, ecological restoration of ecosystems, climate change science, and management of human-wildlife conflicts, which you've heard about in the media, our staff in the natural sciences portfolio has grown by approximately 20% since 2013.
I think that if you look at a number of our publications, which we can share with you, you can see that there is a range of successes that we have brought to bear in terms of dealing with visitors, in terms of our ecosystems, in terms of working with indigenous people across our mandate, and in terms of securing new marine and terrestrial areas.
I apologize for the length of my response, but I think you raise an important point that we would want to speak to.