UNESCO To Hear Petition For Glacier-Waterton NP As "World Heritage Site In Danger" Thanks To Mining

[hatrack]

A stunningly beautiful park that spans the Canada-U.S. border in southwestern Alberta may soon be added to an infamous United Nations list of the world's most threatened special areas. In a session in Seville, Spain, next month, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will consider a petition by 11 conservation groups asking that Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park be designated a World Heritage Site in Danger.

“If that happens, it would be a really big black eye for both Canada and the United States,” Ryland Nelson, a spokesman for one of the petitioning groups, Wildsight, said yesterday. “We hope it doesn't come to that. Ideally, before that designation takes place, we'd like to see these two countries come together and agree on the actions that are needed to protect this area,” he said.

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Those parks are protected and carefully managed. But in British Columbia's southeastern corner, the landscape adjoining the international park remains open to development. The B.C. government has rejected proposals to “close the loop” by adding the area to the international park.

Among the threats to the park are a proposed coal mine that would remove 18 million tonnes of overburden rock and coal a year, and a methane gas field that would cover 500 square kilometres. Mr. Nelson said if those developments go ahead in B.C., the Flathead River could carry pollutants south into Glacier National Park. The Flathead River makes up the western boundary of the park in Montana.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/un-to-hear-petition-that-claims-rocky-mountain-park-in-danger/article1152385/