Mikisew push for “in danger” designation to protect park

The Mikisew Cree First Nation is asking the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to classify Wood Buffalo National Park as a World Heritage Site “in danger.”

“We felt we’d exhausted all the ways to voice our concerns (provincially and federally) and then we found out about the UNESCO process and felt it was an important enough issue to pursue,” said Melody Lepine, director of industry and government relations and the face of the Mikisew delegation to UNESCO this summer in Bonn, Germany.

In 1983, UNESCO identified the park as a World Heritage Site, in part because it contains the world’s largest freshwater delta, at the mouth of the Peace and Athabasca rivers. It is this vitally important watershed that the Mikisew are attempting to protect. Currently, 48 World Heritage Sites have been identified as in danger because of newly introduced natural or manmade factors.

“We’ve been raising the issue of water quality and flow in the Athabasca and Peace rivers for years,” said Lepine.

According to the petition lodged by the Mikisew, the park is facing unprecedented and immediate ecological threats from multiple sources. Hydro-electric dams located on the Peace River in B.C. have impacted the amount and flow of water to the delta, which in turn endangers the delicate ecological systems located in and along the watershed. There are already three existing dams on the Peace and one slated to start construction this summer—B.C. Hydro’s Site C dam. In addition, the booming industrial development in Alberta’s oil sands to the south of the park brings with it changes to water quality and chemistry. The Mikisew cited the proposed Frontier Oil Sands mine near the Wood Buffalo park border as another possible source of water contamination in the delta.

“These cumulative and downstream effects, all of these things add up to impact water quantity and quality. The problem for us is that a lot of these activities are happening outside of the park, making them very difficult for us to address,” said Lepine.

After meeting with Lepine and considering the petition, UNESCO expressed concern for the environmental impacts being experienced at the park and issued a draft decision, asking the Canadian government to undertake a strategic environmental assessment and report back to UNESCO by Dec. 1, 2016. UNESCO has also requested that Canada host an independent monitoring group from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources to review the impact of developments on the property, evaluate the current state of conservation, and facilitate industrial management and monitoring solutions between Canada, First Nations and other stakeholders. 

Lepine says the monitoring group is slated to visit Canada in October, and preparations are already underway. This time around, the Mikisew are hoping to convince UNESCO to add a cultural component to the World Heritage designation of the park, in recognition of the Cree and Dene peoples’ historical connection to the land.

Once the visit and assessments are complete, UNESCO will consider listing Wood Buffalo National Park as a World Heritage Site In Danger at next year’s convention in Turkey.  Currently, 48 World Heritage Sites have been identified as in danger because of newly introduced natural or manmade factors. The Mikisew are hoping the new designation will enhance the conservation efforts of government and industry in the region.

“Ultimately, we’d like to see a lot more collaboration and co-management of the site [with the government of Canada] and that includes managing the cumulative effects of activities outside of the site,” Lepine said. “We want to exhaust every opportunity we can to protect it.”

Wood Buffalo National Park is one of the 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Canada. It is Canada’s largest national park and the second largest national park in the world.