The Niagara Escarpment Commission, founded in June 1973 by the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act, is an agency of the Ontario government. Its mission is to "conserve the UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

-designated Niagara Escarpment

Niagara Escarpment

The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in the United States and Canada that runs westward from New York State, through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois...

 World Biosphere Reserve

Biosphere reserve

The Man and the Biosphere Programme of UNESCO was established in 1971 to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.-Development:...

 as a continuous natural environment and scenic, working countryside". The Niagara Escarpment Commission published the first Niagara Escarpment Plan in 1985. This plan is reviewed and updated every five years, with the most recent version of the plan published in 2005.

The Niagara Escarpment Commission has essentially the same powers and responsibilities as a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

, including control over zoning

Zoning

Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...

 and bylaws.