Question Period Note: Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site Action Plan

Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site Action Plan

· The Government of Canada recognizes the Outstanding Universal Value of Canada's UNESCO World Heritage sites and is committed to their ongoing protection.
· At the request of the World Heritage Committee, the Government of Canada, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous communities, and stakeholders, developed an action plan to ensure the Outstanding Universal Value of Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site will be secured.
· Through Budget 2018 and Budget 2021, the Government of Canada is making historic investments in the protection of Canada's nature, parks and wild spaces. This includes $98.1 million for the Action Plan for Wood Buffalo National Park aimed at:
o strengthening collaboration with Indigenous partners for the management of the park;
o enhancing scientific research and ecological monitoring using science and Indigenous knowledge;
o investing in water science and water management within the park; and
o implementing recovery actions for wood bison and whooping crane.
· The Government of Canada will continue to deliver on measures outlined in the Action Plan. We are pleased with progress to date with more than half of the identified actions completed or underway.

· In 2017, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee requested that Canada develop an Action Plan for the Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site to address threats to the site's Outstanding Universal Value as a result of climate change and pressures from development outside its boundaries.
· The Action Plan was submitted to the World Heritage Committee on February 1, 2019, and tabled in Parliament in March 2019.
· Canada is leading the implementation of the Action Plan in collaboration with the Government of Alberta, Government of British Columbia, Government of Northwest Territories and Indigenous partners.
· The Plan is a comprehensive response to the World Heritage Committee concerns and includes 142 actions that are focused on:
o strengthening park management in collaboration with Indigenous partners;
o enhancing research, monitoring and management of the Peace-Athabasca Delta using science and Indigenous knowledge;
o establishing new mechanisms to support improved water management in the Peace Athabasca Delta;
o increasing the protection and connectivity of ecosystems within and adjacent to Wood Buffalo NP; and
o implementing recovery actions for Species At Risk Act-listed whooping crane and wood bison.
· Budget 2018 and Budget 2021 provided $87.4 million for the Plan's implementation.
· In July 2021, the World Heritage Committee adopted a decision on the state of conservation of Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site, and requested that Canada provide an updated report on the Action Plan's progress by February 2022.
WOOD BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK'S WORLD HERITAGE INSCRIPTION
· Wood Buffalo National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1983, based on its Outstanding Universal Value related to the following criteria:
o Great concentrations of migratory wildlife and rare and superlative natural phenomena (large inland delta, salt plains and gypsum karst) that are internationally significant.
o (Most ecologically complete and largest example of the entire Great Plains-Boreal grassland ecosystem of North America, the only place where the predator-prey relationship between wolves and wood bison has continued, unbroken, over time.
o Contains the only breeding habitat in the world for the whooping crane, an endangered species brought back from the brink of extinction through careful management of the small number of breeding pairs in the park. The park's size (4.5 million hectares), complete ecosystems and protection are essential for in-situ conservation of the whooping crane.

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