Figure 2: World Heritage Committee decisions flowing from Mikisew Cree First Nation petition

Figure 2: World Heritage Committee decisions flowing from Mikisew Cree First Nation petition.

The Government of Canada welcomed the RMM and worked closely with the WHC, the IUCN, and Indigenous partners (including the Mikisew Cree) to plan the visit. Representatives of the WHC and the IUCN met with federal, provincial, and territorial governments; Indigenous communities; industry; academics; and environmental nongovernment organizations in late September and early October, 2016. The RMM report3 (released March 10, 2017) concluded that the PAD, “widely recognized as the particularly valuable and vulnerable heart of the park,” is being impacted by external developments and climate change and that these impacts are not being adequately addressed through existing management frameworks and collaborative efforts. Key concerns identified included the longstanding tensions between Indigenous people and governmental and private sector actors, governance deficiencies in relation to water management, cumulative effects assessment and environmental monitoring, and the effects of climate change on the property’s ecosystems.

The RMM report recommended that Canada “be given one opportunity…to immediately develop a structured and adequately funded Action Plan” guided by 17 recommendations (Appendix A). In response to the report, Canada submitted a State of Conservation Report to the WHC on March 30, 2017, acknowledging the RMM report and committing to the development of the SEA and Action Plan in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous communities, industry, and stakeholders.

The World Heritage Committee subsequently adopted a decision at their July 2017 Committee meeting requesting that Canada submit two documents to the WHC: a report on the progress achieved with its implementation of the RMM report recommendations by February 1, 2018, and an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and an Action Plan by December 1, 2018. These documents will be examined by the Committee at its 43rd session in 2019 (World Heritage Committee Decision 41 Com 7B.2, 2017). In September 2018, the World Heritage Committee extended the deadline for Canada to submit the Action Plan to February 1, 2019 as a result of a request initiated by an Indigenous partner of WBNP.

”WBNP protects the largest freeroaming, self-regulating Wood Bison herd in the world, the nesting ground of the last remaining wild flock of endangered Whooping Cranes, the biologically rich Peace–Athabasca Delta, extensive salt plains unique in Canada, and some of the finest examples of gypsum karst topography in North America.”