• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

Resource Development, Climate Impacts, Federal Negligence Bring Wood Buffalo Park Close to Heritage in Danger List

June 18, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

Ansgar Walk/Wikimedia Commons

Ansgar Walk/Wikimedia Commons

29
SHARES
 

A UN agency is on the verge of placing Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada’s largest, on the World Heritage in Danger List, and urging the country to take far more strenuous measures to protect the territory and its extraordinary biodiversity.

In a draft decision, UNESCO determines that Wood Buffalo is imperiled by the triple threat of upstream resource development, climate change, and a federal government negligent in its duty to protect, The Canadian Press reports.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

“Considerably more effort will be needed to reverse the negative trends at a time when climate change, combined with upstream industrial developments and resource extraction, are intensifying,” the draft states. It adds that further erosion of its ecosystems, including the vast Peace-Athabasca Delta upon which many Indigenous communities and millions of migratory birds depend, “could eventually lead to the inscription of the property on the list of World Heritage in Danger.”

With its “almost 45,000 square kilometres of grasslands, wetlands, and waterways” stretching across the Alberta-Northwest Territories boundary, Wood Buffalo is “the world’s only breeding ground for endangered whooping cranes and home to the world’s largest herd of free-ranging wood buffalo,” CP states. Millions of other migratory birds make their way to the delta to breed via four continental flyways.

With a final ruling expected this summer, the draft decision is the latest installment in a saga which began in 2014. That’s when the Mikisew Cree First Nation, concerned about the loss of ecological integrity throughout the region, asked UNESCO, which oversees the UN’s list of World Heritage Sites, to review Wood Buffalo’s status.

The agency’s initial, unsettling assessment, issued in 2017, galvanized Ottawa to produce a study which confirmed the fears of the Mikisew, and UNESCO’s own judgement, CP notes. The combined effects of watershed damage due to established dams in British Columbia, tar sands/oil sands development in Alberta, and climate change have left “15 out of 17 measures of ecological health” in decline.

Responding to UNESCO’s call for a federal action plan to redress Wood Buffalo’s deterioration, Canada “proposed solutions such as artificially-induced spring floods and other water flows,” and “promised more careful environmental reviews of nearby development and better consultation with local Indigenous people,” the news agency recalls. The Alberta government also responded to the UNESCO report, constructing a buffer zone of wildland areas around much of the park.

While the draft decision “praises those measures, including the controversial Bill C-69 on environmental assessment,” it takes Canada to task for failing to address concerns about the impacts of British Columbia’s mammoth Site C dam on the park.

Expressing “serious concern” about ongoing upstream tar sands/oil sands development, UNESCO has requested an assessment of the risks posed by the industry’s toxic tailing ponds.

Commenting on Parks Canada’s commitment of more than $27.5 million over the next five years for federal action at Wood Buffalo, UNESCO wrote that “more funding will likely be needed given the size of the property and the complexity of the issues.”

CPAWS Northern Alberta Executive Director Kecia Kerr stressed the need to take the UNESCO report seriously.

“It’s definitely not a real passing grade,” she told CP. “The continuation of adding a small impact here, a small impact there, [has] already overwhelmed the park. It will require some tough decisions and actually saying no to some projects.”



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, First Peoples, Hydropower, International Agencies & Studies, Oil & Gas, Tar Sands / Oil Sands, Water

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

sunrise windmill
International Agencies & Studies

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
145
Pixabay
Solar

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
85

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.6k
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
145
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
167
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
85
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
89

Recent Posts

Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
87
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
39
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
54
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
877
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
79
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
100
Next Post
Andrea Horwath/Facebook

Ontario NDP Promises Net-Zero Carbon Economy by 2050

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}