Save the caribou - stop the tar sands

Thousands of woodland caribou once roamed across the Beaver Lake Cree's traditional territories in Alberta, Canada – now between just 175 and 275 of these iconic animals remain and without immediate protection they face extinction throughout these territories and most of north eastern Alberta.

A symbol of Canada's pristine wilderness, woodland caribou are found in undisturbed old growth boreal forest and forested peatlands. Habitat that is being degraded and threatened on a huge scale by rapidly expanding tar sands developments throughout the Beaver Lake Cree's traditional territories.

If the current rates of decline continue the future for the region's caribou herds looks bleak, with the population dropping to just 50 by 2025, 10 by 2040 and becoming locally extinct shortly thereafter. Given the massive expansion plans for tar sands developments in the area, the likelihood is that without intervention they will disappear much faster. 50 individuals are considered the level below which populations may be non-recoverable.

Woodland caribou are listed as 'threatened' nationally under Canada's Species at Risk Act and within Alberta have been determined to be 'at risk'. As such the Canadian Government is required by law to prepare a recovery plan that identifies and protects 'critical habitat' for this listed species. The Government was required to do this by 2007 – it hasn't.

The Beaver Lake Cree are calling upon the Canadian Government to protect the remaining ranges of the woodland caribou herds within their ancestral lands with immediate effect, including a moratorium on all new industrial developments. If this is not forthcoming they will seek a judicial review in the Canadian courts to force the Canadian Government to take this action.

Current tar sands production within Beaver Lake Cree traditional territories accounts for around 30% of Canada's total tar sands production. The vast majority of this is extracted within or near caribou critical habitat (452,600 barrels of oil per day). Oil companies have plans to more than triple production within these areas to 1,642,900 bpd. If the Beaver Lake Cree are successful in their judicial review application it would have huge implications for these oil company plans, with several major tar sands projects planned in or near caribou habitat, including BP's joint project with Devon to produce 105,000 bpd at it's Kirby project.

Caribou habitat protection would halt a number of major new projects and prohibit the exploitation of many undeveloped tar sands leases granted within Beaver Lake Cree traditional territories.

Read the full 'Save the caribou – stop the tar sands' report

This report details the plight of the woodland caribou within Beaver Lake Cree traditional territories, the impacts tar sands developments are having upon them, the Beaver Lake Cree’s demands for protection of caribou habitat, and the implications this would have for the oil industry’s massive expansion plans for tar sands exploitation in the area...

Download the full report »

Help save the caribou - play the game!

The caribou faces extinction unless urgent action is taken to protect their habitat and halt new tar sands development. Play the game - help the caribou get to the safety of the forest.