“Majestic mountains and a wild river of world significance.”
IUCN. Last modified 2 February 2012.
Retrieved 28 February 2012 from:
“Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada.” Parks Canada. Last modified 21 February
2012. Retrieved 29 February 2012 from:
“Nahanni National Park.” United
Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retreived 29
February 2012 from:
Soutullo, A.
2010. Extent of the Global Network of Terrestrial Protected Areas. Conservation
Biology, 24(2):362-363.
There have been implementations of amazing programs that
seem to arise due to not so amazing people, or rather, types of people. All it
takes is one person (or groups of peoples) to perform actions capable of
catastrophic results. For instance, the word “protection”, in Protected Areas,
implies that regions of Earth need defending from threats, and the biggest
threats seen in most ecosystems are we the humans. With proper management and
vast amounts of money protected areas are very successful at ensuring
biodiversity while also contributing to people’s livelihoods.
There are currently over 161, 000 protected areas (PA) in
the world, covering approximately 10-15% of the land surface area. There are
many different organizations and companies that take on the responsibility of
protecting areas. Of extreme interest to me was the International Union for
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) because of the work they
did resulting in several of Canada’s PA. IUCN have developed six magnificent
Protected Area Management Categories that were designed to protect areas based
on their management aims on an international level. They have done a lot of
work with the World Heritage Programme, which coordinated IUCN’s work on the
UNESCO World Heritage Convention – possibly the most important nature
conservation instrument on a global scale.
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The Nahanni National Park Reserve is a World Heritage that
is located in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories, covering
approximately 30, 000 km2. It was created in 1976 and two years
later was designated among the twelve first UNESCO World Heritage sites. The
landscape of the park consists of canyons, rivers, alpine tundra and boreal
forest with a vast assortment of wildlife calling it home; including, but not
limited to: wolf, grizzly bear, mountain goat, moose and beaver. There are,
however, seven of Canada’s species at risk residing in this park as well: wood
bison, woodland caribou, olive-sided flycatcher, common nighthawk, rusty
blackbird, yellow rail and short-eared owl. Astonishingly, the park is also the
only known location where a rare plant species, the Nahanni Aster is found. It
is clear to see why this portion of land was a prime candidate for becoming a
protected area, as well as its quality of maintenance it has experienced.
Currently the major threat seen to this area is a proposed road
adjacent to the park reserve that would allow mining trucks access during the
winter season to a lead-zinc mine. Negative impacts on the land, waters and wildlife
are all predicted with the acceptance of this road. I have faith that the First
Nation representatives and Parks Canada will protect the species in the area
and local residence, tourists, and wildlife alike will experience the benefits
of the park.
Protected areas are the key to maintaining biodiversity
while pleasing the needs of humans.
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