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2002… |
Pikangikum, Poplar River, Pauingassi and Little Grand Rapids First Nations signed the Protected Areas and First Nation Stewardship Accord. Through this agreement, they recognized that collective action was needed to create sustainable economic opportunities for their communities while still protecting and managing their traditional lands according to Anishinabe values and land management practices. |
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2003… |
The site was reviewed at the Boreal Zone Workshop of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in St. Petersburg, Russia. It generated international interest since it was shown to fill an identified gap in the system of protected areas. The report from that meeting stated: “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.” |
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2004… |
The four Accord First Nations and the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario formed the partnership now known as the Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site Assembly to ensure that the unique heritage values of this living cultural landscape are protected for the benefit of all future generations. The Assembly partnership coordinates the six jurisdictions to ensure effective planning and eventual collective management of the entire site. 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. |
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2006… |
The partnership became incorporated as a non-profit organization and, in 2007, hired a project manager. |
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2011… |
A nomination document is expected to be completed. It will require extensive community consultations, research, mapping and comprehensive community-based land-use planning. It will include the final boundaries of the site and it will also describe the innovative way the area will be managed using both traditional Anishinabe and western scientific knowledge. 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. |