Canada criticized for missing Wood Buffalo action plan deadline

Canada has “dropped the ball” by missing a United Nations deadline to update its Wood Buffalo National Park action plan, critics say.

The federal government, through Parks Canada, was asked by UN world heritage body Unesco to file an updated plan to save the park – Canada’s largest, and a World Heritage Site – by February 1.

That request came after Unesco inspectors made 17 recommendations for change and highlighted a string of significant concerns, particularly the impacts of upstream dams in British Columbia and the potential future release of treated tailings water in Alberta.

Now, the northern Alberta chapter of conservation group CPAWS is demanding answers after Canada failed to meet the February 1 deadline.

Parks Canada told Cabin Radio it had invested “significant time, effort and resources” in its original action plan, which has been in place since 2019. The federal agency gave no indication that it intends to update its action plan as Unesco had requested.

“Canada has dropped the ball at its first opportunity to demonstrate commitment to the World Heritage Committee’s request, with no indication that updates to the action plan have been completed or even initiated,” CPAWS wrote in a statement issued last week.

“Canada needs to take urgent action on implementing these crucial recommendations to avoid causing further harm to the ecological values of the park,” Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist Phillip Meintzer was quoted as saying.

Parks Canada declined an interview request.

In a written statement, the federal agency said its action plan was “the product of collaboration among 11 Indigenous nations and communities, provincial and territorial governments, the Government of Canada” and others, and represents “a long-term commitment to action that has been developed specifically to address the complex challenges facing Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site.”

Parks Canada says more than $87 million is being spent on implementing the action plan, which contains 138 actions. In its statement, Parks Canada said the Unesco committee had “acknowledged that important progress has been made.”

Parks Canada concluded it was “confident that the continued implementation of the action plan” was the most appropriate step, making no mention of any steps to update it.

The park spans the NWT-Alberta border near Fort Smith. Wood Buffalo is considered threatened by the consequences of oil sands development to the south, and an August 2022 inspection by Unesco was the second in six years.

Parks Canada developed its action plan after Unesco first expressed concern in 2016. 

First Nations and Métis communities in and around the park have long maintained that the federal government is not doing enough to ensure its well-being.

While the 2022 inspection didn’t recommend moving the park to a list of World Heritage Sites in danger, those inspectors called for an updated action plan and a new major inspection in 2026.

Wildfires burned vast areas of the park in 2023, consuming more than half a million hectares of land, but the biggest dangers are generally considered to be environmental concerns beyond the park that threaten its long-term well-being.

The inspectors concluded that most threats to the park identified in 2016 “remain valid today” – pointing to tensions between governments, Indigenous peoples and industry, plus the impact of dams and oil sands and the absence of a “buffer zone” around the park.

Inspectors did find Parks Canada had made “important progress” in some parts of its action plan, particularly “efforts to strengthen Indigenous partnerships and ongoing efforts to move towards co-management of the property.”

But they said “it is too early to assess how far the action plan will succeed” and suggested Canada’s current budget for that plan probably isn’t enough.