East Side Lake Winnipeg - World Heritage Site

CPAWS asks Manitoba government to grant Poplar River First Nation's request for permanent protection of 8000 square kilometres ofintact forested lands on the east side of Lake Winnipeg.

Protect Manitoba's East Side Lake Winnipeg

Please let Premier Gary Doer know your thoughts regarding a healthy future for woodland caribou and its boreal forest home.

Articles:

World Heritage Site

Cross-border proposal

Map of Proposed UN World Heritage Site

Manitoba has a global conservation opportunity to create a World Heritage Site. CPAWS Manitoba and the Wilderness Committee congratulate the First Nations involved for their vision. More information at www.poplarriverfirstnation.ca.

Photo by Andrea Maenza

World Heritage Site

First Nations on the east side of Lake Winnipeg are linking their bordering traditional territories in an effort to secure protection from industrial developments. Through an Accord signed in 2002, First Nations unified in an effort to establish linked protected areas and a 43,000 square kilometer boreal World Heritage Site — that’s one-and-a-half times the size of Vancouver Island!

Straddling the Manitoba-Ontario border, the area is on Canada’s short list of future World Heritage Sites. The Manitoba government has also announced its support for the initiative. Now, the province must act on its endorsement by providing legal protection from industrial developments during community lead planning, and the quest for World Heritage Site Status.

The recently completed Lands Management Plan for Poplar River First Nation’s territory calls for permanent protection of over 8,000 square kilometers, which currently have interim protection within the Poplar/Nanowin Rivers Park Reserve. Interim protection measures are also required for the remaining Manitoba section of the proposed World Heritage Site. We support these requests for protected lands, as they will allow the First Nations involved in the Accord to plan with confidence for their future while increasing this boreal region’s eligibility as a World Heritage
Site.

Continue to Manitoba's Woodland Caribou . . .

New report: Traditional aboriginal knowledge key to Boreal Forest conservation

The report, Conservation Value of the North American Boreal Forest from an Ethnobotanical Perspective, describes the deep botanical and ecological knowledge that Canada's Aboriginal peoples have gained over thousands of years of using the Boreal Forest as grocery, pharmacy, school, and spiritual centre.