Wood Buffalo National Park helps protect about 3,000 wood bison/K. Gedling, Parks Canada

UNESCO is wrapping up a second reactive monitoring mission to Wood Buffalo National Park to see if Canada’s largest national park should go on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

Representatives of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre arrived at the park, which straddles the Northwest Territories and Alberta, Aug. 18 and finish their mission Aug. 26. They’re meeting with Parks Canada along with Indigenous nations and communities, non-governmental organizations, Environment and Climate Change Canada and the governments of Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

This mission follows the State of Conservation report that was submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in February. The northern park is under external threats like nearby hydropower dams, oil sands activity and climate change.

After the first reactive monitoring mission in 2016, the World Heritage Centre asked Canada to develop an action plan to respond to its findings. Parks Canada led a collaborative effort to develop a multi-year action plan in 2019. The plan details 138 key measures to be implemented between 2019 and 2026, plus ongoing management actions. More than two-thirds of the plan has been implemented or is underway, supported by $87 million ($67 million USD) in federal funding.

The salt plains in Wood Buffalo National Park are home to the rare whooping crane/J. McKinnon, Parks Canada

Parks Canada said in a news release that:

• Water management is an important aspect of the conservation of Wood Buffalo and Canada is setting the stage to further support inter-jurisdictional water governance by developing the modelling required to better understand environmental flow needs and cumulative effects in the Peace-Athabasca Delta. Canada and Indigenous communities are collaboratively advancing the design and development of water control structures that aim to restore water levels in the Delta and ensure ongoing traditional access and use on the land.
• Bison are a keystone species and dialogue is underway with Indigenous nations and communities on a draft conservation agreement for the Ronald Lake bison herd. Key conservation actions included in the draft are already being implemented to address imminent threats to the herd, including the expanded protection of critical habitat adjacent to the park and advancing the development of a herd management plan.
• There has been a recovery of the Aransas-Wood Buffalo whooping crane population, which was on the brink of extinction in the mid-1940s. While still listed as endangered in both the United States and Canada, the species continues to recover and the population has achieved a growth rate of 4.4 per cent and estimated total population of 543 birds in February.
• Climate change is a key environmental stressor with significant cultural implications for Indigenous communities. A variety of climate change projects have been undertaken and work has focused on further understanding the future climate and assessing climate change related risks and vulnerability.

Whooping crane ponds in Wood Buffalo National Park/J. McKinnon, Parks Canada

Canada’s largest national park boasts 44,807 square kilometres (17,300 square miles) and is five times larger than Yellowstone National Park. Eleven Indigenous communities have long been stewards of the region’s lands and waters. Created in 1922 to protect northern Canada’s last remaining bison herds, Wood Buffalo earned its UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site designation in 1983 for its “outstanding universal value.”

After the mission, representatives from World Heritage Centre and International Union for the Conservation of Nature will make a recommendation on the overall state of conservation of the park.

There are 52 global sites on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. In North America, Everglades National Park and Mexico’s Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California are on the list.