UNESCO asks Canada to check impact of oil sands projects on national park – Mining.com

July 1, 2015

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is calling Canadian authorities to conduct a strategic environmental assessment of Wood Buffalo National Park, the country’s largest, to determine the impact of oil sands projects on its wildlife and vegetation.

UNESCO has also urged Ottawa to halt development projects that would be difficult to reverse until a full review has been conducted, The Globe and Mail reports.

The U.N. body is also seeking permission to send its own team of researchers to the park, which straddles the border between northern Alberta and The Northwest Territories.

The decision, reached Wednesday at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany, comes in response to a petition filed by Fort Chipewyan’s Mikisew Cree First Nation last month, asking for help protecting the park from the impact of oil sands development and dam construction in British Columbia.

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