UN says Canada's plan to rescue Wood Buffalo National Park not enough

The status of Canada's largest park as a world heritage siteremains wobbly after a United Nations body expressed grave doubtsabout a federal plan to rescue it.

"Considerably more effort will be needed to reverse the negativetrends at a time when climate change combined with upstreamindustrial developments and resource extraction are intensifying,"says a draft decision on Wood Buffalo National Park from UNESCO,which manages the UN's list of World Heritage Sites.

Further deterioration, it says, "could eventually lead to theinscription of the property on the list of World Heritage in Danger."

Wood Buffalo, which straddles the Alberta-Northwest Territoriesboundary, is one of the world's largest freshwater deltas andbreeding grounds for millions of migratory birds from fourcontinental flyways.

With almost 45,000 square kilometres of grasslands, wetlands andwaterways, it is the world's only breeding ground for endangeredwhooping cranes and home to the world's largest herd of free-rangingwood buffalo. First Nations depend on the area.

But it has been deteriorating for decades. In 2014, the MikisewCree asked UNESCO to examine the park and see if it still meriteddesignation as a World Heritage Site.

• 'We're not convinced': Groups criticize draft plan to restore Wood Buffalo National Park
• Almost every part of Canada's largest national park deteriorating: federal study
• Canada dragging its feet in protecting Wood Buffalo National Park, critics say

The UNESCO report prompted Ottawa to commission a 561-page studythat concluded 15 out of 17 measures of ecological health weredeclining. The effects everything from low water flows tocurtailed Indigenous use stem largely from changes to area riverscaused by climate change, dams in British Columbia and industry inAlberta.

Canada proposed solutions such as artificially induced springfloods and other water flows. Ottawa also promised more carefulenvironmental reviews of nearby development and better consultationwith local Indigenous people.

Since that report, Alberta has also created a series of wildlandareas around most of the park as a buffer zone.

The UN draft decision praises those measures, including thecontroversial Bill C-69 on environmental assessment.
But Canada failed to answer concerns about B.C. Hydro's Site Cdam, UNESCO says. It also points out that ongoing oilsandsdevelopment upstream from the park is of "serious concern."

The report notes Teck Frontier's oilsands mine would movedevelopment closer to the park. It also wants an assessment of thefailure risks posed by oilsands tailings ponds.

Parks Canada has committed more than $27.5 million over fiveyears to support the federal plan. But UNESCO says that's notenough.

'It's a warning'

"More funding will likely be needed given the size of theproperty and the complexity of the issues," it says.

Kecia Kerr of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society said theUNESCO decision is serious business.

"It's a serious tone and it's a warning," she said. "It'sdefinitely not a real passing grade."

Arresting the park's decline will take strong measures, she said.

"The continuation of adding a small impact here, a small impactthere, [has]already overwhelmed the park. It will require sometough decisions and actually saying no to some projects."

There are currently 33 countries with properties on the list ofsites in danger. Although the United Kingdom and the United Stateseach have one site on the list, almost all are from Africa, SouthAmerica and the Middle East.

UNESCO will take its final vote on the draft decision on Canada'sresponse at its next series of meetings starting at the end of themonth.