The federal government of Canada, the Manitoba provincial government, and the Seal River Watershed Alliance have completed a year-long feasibility assessment that found conserving northern Manitoba’s Seal River watershed is achievable, publicly popular, and a step towards meeting conservation and reconciliation goals.
This process started over a year ago when Indigenous leaders from the Sayisi Dene First Nation, Northlands Denesuline First Nation, Barren Lands First Nation, and O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation—who collectively form the Seal River Watershed Alliance—signed a MOU with Parks Canada and Manitoba government to evaluate the environmental, socio-economic, and cultural impacts of protecting this watershed in northern Manitoba. Now with the study complete, the next step will be formalizing the designation for what will be Canada’s largest Indigenous-led protected area through a negotiation process.
Dr. Jeff Wells, Audubon’s vice president of boreal conservation, said “The importance of protecting the Seal River Watershed cannot be overstated. This huge watershed is teeming with wildlife, including 10 million birds who breed here each year, as well as millions more that use these vital habitats for refueling and resting while on their migratory journeys across the hemisphere.”
The watershed is considered crucial to maintaining and growing healthy bird populations throughout the hemisphere. Audubon recognizes that the leadership and guardianship of the Indigenous governments who have stewarded these vast lands for millennia represents the only way to properly protect this magnificent region.
“We couldn’t be happier for our friends and partners at the Seal River Watershed Alliance,” Wells added. “Their dedication and hard work over many, many years has led to this point and will—no doubt—ultimately result in the designation of an Indigenous Protected Area with permanent protection from any and all industrial development.”
The Seal River Watershed Alliance released this statement on this important step in protecting this globally important part of their ancestral lands.
