UNESCO – Ft McMurray's Homepage

Wood Buffalo National Park UNESCO Investigation Started After Mikisew Cree First Nation Complaint

A UNESCO investigation into Wood Buffalo National Park has been started after the organization received a complaint from the Mikisew Cree First Nation. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization received the complaint from the tribe and will be sending a monitoring committee to investigate. According to the complaint lodged by the Mikisew Cree First Nation industrial development in the area poses a risk to the environmental stability in Wood Buffalo National Park. A petition was started by the band which is based in Fort Chipewyan, and the goal was to have the park reclassified so that it became an at risk location. There are two projects that have caused concern among the Mikisew Cree First Nation. The Teck Frontier Oil Sands Mine and the Site C Dam would both harm the local ecology according to the petition and the complaint.

The band filed the complaint with UNESCO over Wood Buffalo National Park because they are concerned with protecting the natural state of the area. According to the First Nation the water levels in the delta have dropped significantly in recent years because of encroaching industrial development and this is harming the ecology in the park. The UNESCO website document concerning the investigation states “The Mikisew have reported that First Nations have expressed significant concern about its impacts on their hunting, fishing and agricultural areas.” According to Melody Lepine, the MCFN government and industrial relations director, “Being here this whole week, we have so much more work to do before it can be listed as in danger. But there are other positive outcomes that can happen even if it is not listed as in danger at the end of all this.”

Wood Buffalo National Park, UNESCO, First Nation

Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO registered location, is at risk of destruction according to the Fort Chipewyan Mikisew Cree First Nation band. The group has forwarded a request to UNESCO asking that the site is reclassified to show that it is at risk. As the largest national park in Canada the Wood Buffalo National Park was first designated as a UNESCO heritage site in 1983, due to the fact that it contains the biggest freshwater delta in the world. It is also the only Whooping Crane resting habitat that is natural, and the bird is already endangered. The First Nation band is concerned about an industrial sector that is encroaching on the 45,000 square kilometer park. According to the group the water levels in the park have gone down considerably in recent years because of industrial development in the area.

There are 2 proposed projects in the works that have heightened the First Nation band’s concerns about the risk to the UNESCO site, and the group is worried that the Wood Buffalo National Park is in danger because of the projects. One of the projects is the Site C Dam in British Columbia, and the other is Teck’s Frontier Oil Sands Mine. The First Nation group is concerned that either of these proposed projects could cause even further water level loss in the park, and affect the natural environment and habitat. According to Chief Steve Courtoreille “The water levels have always been a concern over the years, and we don’t know what the park will look like once the dams are built.I don’t know what it will take for governments to listen and realize what they’re doing by approving these licenses before understanding how it will impact the delta. This place is in danger of disappearing from the world.”