A Parks Canada report concludes that Wood Buffalo National Park’s world heritage designation is at risk from development, prompting nearby Indigenous groups to demand protections on the park.

In a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report released in May, researchers warn “desired outcomes for the world heritage values are not being met.”

It also added “the ability of Indigenous groups, peoples and communities to practice their traditional way of life is being negatively impacted” by development and climate change.

The report found that dams and oilsands projects are interfering with migration routes for birds that call the park home.

It also found that the natural grasslands that support one of the few remaining wild wood bison herds in Canada are declining. More research into the relationship between wood bison and wolves is needed, it said.

These changes are also impacting traditional Indigenous practices within the park area.

“It is Indigenous peoples who experience the impacts most directly given their intrinsic connection to the land,” the report concludes.

In a statement, Chief Archie Waquan of the Mikisew Cree First Nation said the report “adds to the mountain of evidence” that the park and regional Indigenous cultural practices are in danger.

“How many more reports like this one are needed before governments start taking real actions to correct the damage that has been done – and is still being done – to the Peace Athabasca Delta?” he said.

“Unless governments start addressing the threats to the Park, our children and future generations of Canadians will not benefit from the park as we once did,” said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

The park is considered to have “outstanding and universal value,” according to its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 2014, the Mikisew Cree First Nation first petitioned that the park be added to the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The following year, the World Heritage Committee asked Canada to undertake the SEA to study the impacts oilsands development and dam projects had on the Peace Athabasca Delta and the park area.

The report is a follow to a November report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which found the park was “significantly threatened” by industrial development.

“The park is vital to everyone; to our people who hunt and trap there and to the health of this land,” said Cam MacDonald, president of Fort Chipewyan Métis Local 125. “It is in everyone’s interest to do what is necessary to protect it.”

vmcdermott@postmedia.com