WWF-Canada Supports Dene Initiatives and Ambrose’s Announcements for Protection in the Mackenzie Watershed

The Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation for cooperative measures to explore the feasibility of a new national park off the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. The MoU features a dramatically expanded area of interest for the proposed national park. WWF-Canada has proudly supported the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation conservation initiatives with funding and technical expertise for over five years now. Active partners in this work have been the Canadian Boreal Initiative and Pew Charitable Trusts, along with a core of loyal personal donors who care about the North.

“In many ways, this community of 350 people has bravely pioneered conservation measures that should be a model for all of us in Canada,” said Monte Hummel, President Emeritus of WWF-Canada. “They have insisted on the right to plan and reserve areas important to them while they still can, in the face of intense industrial pressure, especially from uranium and diamond exploration.”

“With the signing of today’s MoU, WWF-Canada expects both the mining industry and the federal government to respect community wishes, by no longer staking in areas that the Dene want to protect. Until now, staking has been happening, despite written objections from the people who live there, and despite federal assurances that they would be given ‘space to negotiate.’”

Minister Ambrose also committed to following up on protecting a number of other areas put forward by Dene communities in the Mackenzie Valley: The Ramparts (Tsudehliline Tuyeta) as a National Wildlife Area (NWA) in the Sahtu region; and in the Dehcho region, the Horn Plateau (Edehzhie) and Trout Lake (Saamba K’e) as NWAs, and the expansion of Nahanni National Park.

“I am from Fort Good Hope in the Sahtu, and I have worked with the community to protect the Ramparts – a sacred place with cliffs along the Mackenzie River and nationally-significant wetlands further inland,” said Stephen Kakfwi, former premier of the NWT, now special advisor to WWF-Canada and the Canadian Boreal Initiative. “My sense is that the community is less than favourable to the pipeline under present circumstances. They need to know the federal government is equally committed to protecting the land. I am glad to hear the Minister will obtain an actual land withdrawal soon, because it has been over two years since The Ramparts was proposed for protection.”

Monte Hummel and Stephen Kakfwi have worked together for new northern protected areas right back to the Berger Inquiry of the 1970s, through the introduction of the NWT Protected Areas Strategy (PAS) in the mid-1990s, and the Mackenzie Valley Five-Year Action Plan in 2004.

“In the NWT, we are rapidly losing conservation options, in the face of extensive oil and gas leases and mineral staking,” said Mr. Kakfwi. “We need a more balanced approach. In fact, getting at least interim protection for all sites currently proposed through the PAS and land-use plans should be required before a decision is made on proposed projects such as the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline.”

Mr. Hummel added, “There’s lots of focus, including by the Prime Minister, on coming out of the current decade with world-class industrial development in the North to make Canada an ‘energy superpower.’ But there has not been enough emphasis on also making sure the legacy is one of world-class conservation accomplishments. That is still possible, northern communities want no less, so we hope today’s announcements by Minister Ambrose will be the first round of increased conservation progress as well.”

WWF-Canada has maintained a full-time presence in the NWT for over ten years now, and is a contributing partner to the NWT Protected Areas Strategy, along with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ducks Unlimited, the Canadian Boreal Initiative, First Nations, industry and both the territorial and federal governments.