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Tuesday July 7 2015 3 ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION whileyoudrivewhileyoudrivewhileyoudrivewhileyoudrivewhileyoudrivewhileyoudrivewhileyoudrive TIRE NORTH LTD. 917 MACKENZIE HWY HAY RIVER NT X0E 0R8 867 874-2686 GET A SET OF CUSTOM WHEELS AT By MEAGAN WOHLBERG The United Nations UNESCO world heri- tage committee is urging Canada to delay any decisions on development projects that could irreversibly impact Wood Buffalo National Park including BC Hydros Site C dam in response to a petition put forth by the Miki- sew Cree First Nation. The Mikisew petitioned the UN body for education science and culture to add the world heritage site to its list of sites in dan- ger in December 2014 citing impacts from hydroelectric dams and oilsands mining on the Peace-Athabasca Delta. That petition was backed by former Parks Canada ofcials sci- entists NGOs and other indigenous groups. Last week the committee met in Bonn Germany and decided the petition merited a fact-nding mission to the park which has been a UNESCO site since 1983. Its been overwhelming. Just being here this week weve received a lot of support Melody Lepine director of Mikisews govern- ment and industry relations told the Journal from Germany. Were just really pleased with thedraftdecisionthatwentthroughsoquickly andwithoutanychanges.Therewasnodebate no discussion it just went through so easily. In its decision the world heritage commit- tee noted the lack of First Nations participa- tion in oilsands monitoring efforts and af- rmed concerns raised in the International Union for Conservation of Natures IUCN 2014 World Heritage Outlook about the im- pacts of dams on the delta. The committee has requested that Canada undertake a strategic environmental assess- ment to address the cumulative impacts of hydro and oilsands development within the park and to not take any decision related to any of these development projects that would be difcult to reverse. When I read that it almost sounds like Canada shouldnt be giving any approvals Lepine said. How Canadas interpreting that though is to be determined. A joint monitoring mission composed of UNESCO and IUCN representatives will now be visiting the park to review the impacts of development evaluate its state of conser- vation and to carry out more in-depth con- versations with Parks Canada the Mikisew Cree First Nation provincial governments and other stakeholders like BC Hydro and oilsands companies. It seems thorough that theyre indepen- dent and unbiased. Theyre going there to study and determine if the impacts weve in- dicated in our petition are what they are so thats their way of going there and validating everything Lepine said. Parks Canada will also be required to sub- mit an updated report on the state of conser- vation in the park for UNESCO examination by Dec. 1 2016. Concerns overstated Parks Canada In its submission to the UNESCO commit- tee Parks Canada called the concerns raised by Mikisew overstated and said the conser- vation situation is far from critical. The petitioners refer to a number of spe- cific proposed developments outside the park including the proposed Site C Dam on the Peace River in British Columbia and pro- posed mining activity in proximity to Wood Buffalos southern boundary. It is important to recognize that Canada has - at both the federal and provincial levels - robust envi- ronmental assessment and permitting pro- cesses states the letter from Parks Canadas George Green head of the Canadian delega- tion to the world heritage committee. The governments of Canada and Alberta are committed to developing the oil sands... in an environmentally responsible way Green added. Since Mikisew led its petition Green said Parks Canada outlined a number of new com- mitments in relation to issues raised by the First Nation which include continued moni- toring of water levels on the Peace River and delta enhanced monitoring and research on the effects of ow regulation and climate change on biodiversity in the delta and in- creased discussions with Aboriginal groups BC Hydro and the Alberta and B.C. govern- ments on management practices to protect the delta. Management actions needed now Mikisew Though Mikisew is aware of those commit- ments Lepine said there has been no indica- tion that theyre being implemented. While Mikisew participates in Parks Canadas Peace Athabasca Delta Environmental Monitoring Program PADEMP she said there are few management outcomes. PADEMP doesnt seem to have a lot of funding and it doesnt seem to be operat- ing under a management process in deal- ing with anything that they do nd. Theyre strictly just focused on monitoring so how does that tie into any legislation and report- ing from Canada to UNESCO on how theyre managing this world heritage site Lepine said. Canadas made some commitments of working further with us. Were yet to see what that looks like because we havent had any conversations yet about those commitments. Apart from the petition Mikisew is one of many First Nations who have led judicial reviews of the Site C dam approval in B.C. If constructed the BC Hydro project would be the third dam on the Peace River. Land-us- ers in the Peace-Athabasca Delta have com- plained of massive landscape changes due to existing hydro projects and fear a third will have irreversible impacts on the delta and their traditional way of life. Construction is expected to begin this summer. We feel there has been no consultation and specically because weve been asking Canada throughout the whole process regard- ing Site C to assess the impacts on the delta on the world heritage site Lepine said. For Canada to say its not going to impact this site and the delta they have no evidence to prove that because they didnt even include the delta in their regional study area. They didnt look at impacts that far downstream. Lepine said Mikisew is now preparing for next years world heritage committee UNESCO to review hydro oilsands threats to Wood Buffalo National Park Canada asked to withhold approving projects that could impact delta meeting in Istanbul Turkey where the nd- ings of the mission will likely be presented and a decision could be made on the re- quest to have the park listed as a UNESCO site in danger. PhotocourtesyofParksCanada The worlds largest beaver dam is located in the heart of Wood Buffalo National Park a UNESCO World Heritage Site.