We launched a petition to UNESCO in 2014 calling on the federal government to take greater action on protecting Wood Buffalo National Park. We have hosted and co-hosted two reactive monitoring missions. The last one was last year. They are close to finalizing the report with recommendations to the federal government.
Wood Buffalo National Park will be addressed at the World Heritage Committee meeting this year. They may decide to make Wood Buffalo National Park a world heritage site, listed as endangered. However, the health concerns have been shared in our UNESCO petition. We have expressed the concerns to the World Heritage Committee numerous times, but again, no action has been taken on the health matters, specifically on protecting water quality, traditional foods and the flow of water into the delta. There are numerous compounding issues. This has the attention of the World Heritage Committee, and they will be making a decision this year.