Before a full house a the Manitoba legislature the Manitoba government says a portion of the trust fund will be dedicated to providing direct benefits to local communities by supporting grassroots development projects such as heritage interpretive centres, cultural education and training programs or culturally-appropriate social services to name a few.

“With this trust fund many more people who share the vision of our elders can now make preserving the boreal forest their dream too. In creating this fund we’ve created a way all of us can help protect the land whether we’re school children or international organizations,” said Sophia Rabliauskas, Pimachiowin Aki spokesperson seated here with outgoing Premier Gary Doer designate Ambassador to the USA. (See Video)

Learn more about the project by listening to Richard Cloutier Reports — a CJOB Radio feature about the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project that aired October 14, 2009. The CJOB broadcast is protected by copyright and made available to Pimachiowin Aki with the permission of Corus Radio. Copyright © 2006-2009 CJOB. All Rights Reserved.

Richard Cloutier reports on the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Project (listen)

Our goal is to safeguard the Anishinabe cultural landscape and the boreal forest as one living system to ensure the well-being of the Anishinabe who live there and for the benefit and enjoyment of all of humanity.

This will ensure the continuance of our ancient living cultural landscape, one that is still intact today and of global significance. First Nations are leading this project because our ancestors have lived here for over 5,000 years.

• Water: … so that the waters remain flowing freely.
• Moose and Sturgeon: … because animals provide meat, medicine, tools and clothing
• Plants: … of the forests and their healing medicines.
• Humans: … because people are part of the creation
• Turtle: … Everything else is on the back of the turtle. The Anishinabe live on Turtle Island … the created land

“The turtle is very old. It is never in a hurry. It never slips. The turtle’s armour is very strong, not like our feeble bodies.”

Creating a World Heritage Site in the area will not change the ownership of the land. Each jurisdiction will be responsible for planning and management in its area and all aboriginal and treaty rights will remain fully protected.

For the world, Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site will be a place where one can experience an ancient land use tradition that continues today, a culture based on the intimate interaction between a people and their environment. It will be an outstanding example of the traditional lifeways of the Anishinabe people in an equally outstanding example of the global boreal ecosystem. It will combine natural and cultural values — a rare distinction among World Heritage Sites.

Pimachiowin Aki includes traditional territories of the four First Nations as well as Atikaki and Atikaki South Provincial Parks in Manitoba and Woodland Caribou Provincial Park and the Eagle-Snowshoe Conservation Area in Ontario.

Because the nomination of a candidate World Heritage Site to UNESCO must be made by a national government, the Federal Government of Canada completed a review of 125 proposed World Heritage Site candidates received from provincial and territorial governments. It included Pimachiowin Aki, (then known as the Atikaki/Woodland Caribou/Accord First Nations Site) on its tentative list of ten sites. Parks Canada and the International Institute for Sustainable Development continue to provide technical support to Pimachiowin Aki.

“This site is remarkable because of the existence of diverse and significant boreal forest values… It fills an important gap by representing the Canadian boreal shield ecozone. This site is also internationally significant because of the planned integration of traditional and western ecological knowledge for land management and protection. The agreement between the First Nations in whose traditional territory this site is located is precedent setting.”