Indigenous Group Asks UNESCO to Protect Wood Buffalo Park

An indigenous group has asked UNESCO to list Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park as “in danger” to protect the biologically diverse area from negative effects of dam construction in British Columbia and oil sands development in Alberta. The World Heritage Committee will review the Mikisew Cree First Nation in Fort Chipewyn’s petition at a meeting next week in Bonn, Germany. Wood Buffalo has been listed as a world heritage site since 1983 partly due to the refuge it offers for wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) and whooping crane (Grus americana). The Mikisew Cree believe that the oil sands and the W.A.C. Bennett Dam built on the Peace River in B.C. are degrading one of the largest inland water deltas in the world.

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