VANCOUVER - Mining and energy development in British Columbia's Flathead Valley has UNESCO concerned about the potential risks to an adjacent world heritage site, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
UNESCO's world heritage committee announced today it will send a fact-finding mission to the region to investigate and "evaluate and provide recommendations on the requirements for ensuring the protection" of Waterton-Glacier. It has also asked Canada and the US to prepare a report by February, 2010 that examines all Flathead River Valley energy and mining proposals and their cumulative impacts.
Last May, 11 Canadian and U.S. environmental groups petitioned UNESCO's world heritage committee to declare the site in danger, following a proposal for mountain top coal mine development in the Flathead.
"The Flathead River Valley provides critical habitat for rare and endangered species that migrate to and from Waterton-Glacier, and it has the highest density of grizzly bears in the interior of North America," Wildsight's Ryland Nelson told the Vancouver Sun at the time.
This fact-funding mission is the first part of the process to declare a world heritage site in danger. If Waterton-Glacier receives that status, it would be the first in North America.
"We think it's a great decision," said Chloe O'Loughlin, spokesperson for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society [CPAWS]. "But we don't want it to become a site in danger. We want this fixed." CPAWS, and others, are calling for the lower third of the valley to be declared a national park, and for the establishment of a wildlife management area for the rest.
This summer, a group of photographers will document the Flathead Valley, in an effort to move B.C. and Canada to protect it.
Calls to the Environment Ministry and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources were not promptly returned.
Colleen Kimmett reports for The Tyee.
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RickW
2 years ago
Four More Years!
BC Voted -- now we get the fallout.
Fiat lux
2 years ago
To this government, and to
To this government, and to the federal, nothing else matters but to satisfy the profit demands of the multinationals. As long as they make lots of profits, everything is A-OK and the directorships are waiting.
Look at the pile dear Mulroney was rewarded with for his beginning of the selling of the country with the FTA.
How many directorships has Chretien received for signing the NAFTA without any public, or provincial inputs?
Ed Deak.
realisticman
2 years ago
Usual Bull from the LEFT nut commentators
What in fact was voted in was the government that has done more for parks than ever before!
April 29, 2008
Ministry of Environment
NEW PARKS AND CONSERVANCIES FOR B.C.
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government introduced legislation today to create 11 new “Class A” provincial parks and 70 additional conservancies, adding almost one million hectares to B.C.’s parks and protected areas network.
Bill 38, the Protected Areas of British Columbia (Conservancies and Parks) Amendment Act, 2008, will more than double the number of conservancies, bringing the total number in B.C. to 135 by adding:
* 50 new conservancies as part of the Central Coast and North Coast land-use decision, as well as the conversion of two existing areas established under the Environment and Land Use Act to conservancies.
* Nine new conservancies as a result of the Sea-to-Sky Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP).
* Two new conservancies as a result of the Haida Gwaii land-use agreement.
* Seven new conservancies as a result of the Morice LRMP.
The legislation will also create 11 new Class A parks, bringing the total number of Class A parks in B.C. to 604 by adding:
* Six new Class A parks as a result of the Morice LRMP.
* One new Class A park as the result of a private land acquisition on the Central Coast.
* Four new Class A parks as a result of the Okanagan-Shuswap LRMP.
In total, this new legislation will add more than 990,000 hectares – approximately twice the size of Prince Edward Island – to B.C.’s parks and protected areas system.
Environment Minister Barry Penner said the legislation represents one of the largest single additions to the protected areas system in the history of the province.
If the legislature passes Bill 38, since 2001 the B.C. government will have established 57 new parks, 135 conservancies, one ecological reserve and eight protected areas, and expanded approximately 50 parks and six ecological reserves, protecting more than 1.8 million hectares of additional land.
Today, more than 14 per cent (or 13.5 million hectares) of British Columbia is protected – more than any other province in Canada.
realisticman
2 years ago
Fiat Lux
I don't come here to defend others but I don't like baloney. Jean Chretien, to the best of my knowledge, is not now and never has been a corporate director. He is a lawyer. As PM he, among other things, bought in a Child Tax Benefit, his government ratified Kyoto Protocol, he worked for a global ban on land mines and he pushed for establishment of International Criminal Court.
You are correct that Chretien signed the final NAFTA deal with Clinton but to suggest that this was done without any provincial input is perhaps the definition of naiveté itself.
RickW
2 years ago
R/M old man....
Creating parks is much like altering the ALR setup in BC. Land in the Fraser VCalley is removed from ALR so that golf courses and housng developments can proceed, while marginal land in a remote part of the province is added, in some cases by a factor of 10, so that this government can brag that it has increased the amount of agricultural land. But in the meantime, it cuts services to the more remote parts of the province (where the "new" ALR land is), so there is little chance of it being used for agriculture.
Likewise, create a park (where few will venture to see or use) and in the meantime, "develop" the Flathead.
Neither do I like baloney, and you are spreading it quite thickly.