August 26th, 2026
Alberta’s sub-regional plans continue to put industrial development ahead of caribou survival and recovery
Three new draft sub-regional plans prioritize Alberta’s industrial intensification over the recovery of species that are already struggling to survive.
The Government of Alberta released the Caribou Mountains, Red Earth, and Berland draft sub-regional plans within weeks of each other for public engagement. These sub-regional plans cover large areas of Alberta affecting threatened wildlife populations, particularly woodland caribou.
Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA), Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Northern Alberta Chapter (CPAWS NAB), and Nature Alberta note that the Government of Alberta is prioritizing industrial development over managing Alberta’s heavy industrial footprint for the recovery of caribou and other species at risk.
Alberta’s original stated purpose for these sub-regional plans was to provide the landscape-level direction needed to conserve and recover caribou populations, while also supporting other species at risk and environmental wellbeing. Instead, the plans explicitly support Alberta’s goal of doubling oil and gas production and enabling increased rates of forest harvesting, while caribou conservation and recovery are not meaningfully considered. Across the three sub-regional plans, industrial development will intensify within landscapes that are already heavily disturbed and where caribou populations are struggling. The recovery of Threatened wood bison is similarly disregarded within the Red Earth and Caribou Mountains draft plans.
“These are not intact landscapes waiting to be developed. They are already heavily disturbed caribou and bison ranges where the remaining habitat is disproportionately important to the survival of these Threatened species” said Pamela Narváez-Torres, Conservation Specialist at AWA. “Allowing more intensified industrial disturbance while promising species recovery a century from now is not a credible conservation strategy.”
Besides oil and gas development, forestry remains a serious concern. The sub-regional plans commit to high levels of harvesting within caribou habitat, even though logging removes the mature and old forests caribou depend on. The plans will not enable meaningful recovery of caribou habitat.
“Regional planning has been stalled because of the complexities of meeting multiple land use goals simultaneously, now the Government of Alberta wants us to believe that it can double oil and gas production, intensify logging in caribou habitat, and somehow recover caribou populations and habitats at the same time” said Tara Russell, Program Director with CPAWS NAB. “The only way that this many sub-regional plans can be pumped out so quickly is if they give up on some of the goals, and it looks like they pushed meaningful habitat recovery and environmental protections off the table.”
The problem is clear — habitat destruction by industrial activities can continue today, while recovery is promised decades into the future. Alberta’s caribou populations will not survive if the landscapes they depend on continue to be destroyed. Restoration is important, but it cannot compensate for the continued destruction of the remaining habitat needed for caribou survival.
“Sub-regional plans need to set clear, measurable and enforceable outcomes for species at risk, while protecting the biophysical habitat they depend on” said Cheryl Bozarth Soll, President of Nature Alberta. “Restoration has an important role to play, but it cannot replace the protection of the remaining functional habitat that caribou and bison need today.”
The Government of Alberta must protect Alberta’s environment and provide credible and measurable pathways toward recovering species at risk, like caribou and bison, if it is to meet the obligations of Canada’s Species At Risk Act and the expectations of Albertans to a safe environment. The Government of Alberta is, instead, actively advocating environmental destruction and the loss of species at risk critical habitat.
Albertans are encouraged to provide feedback and comments on all three plans. Public engagement on the Red Earth, Caribou Mountains, and Berland sub-regional plans is open until February 1, 2027.
Background
- Woodland caribou were listed as Threatened under the federal Species At Risk Act (SARA) in 2003. The federal Recovery Strategies for the Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), Boreal and Southern Mountain Populations in Canada provided provincial and territorial jurisdictions an opportunity to develop range plans to conserve and recover woodland caribou populations and their critical habitats, giving jurisdictions five years to develop and implement those plans.
- In 2019, Alberta established ministerial sub-regional task forces to help develop woodland caribou-focused land-use plans in five of Alberta’s 11 proposed sub-regions. AWA and CPAWS NAB participated in these task forces and helped develop recommendations intended to balance economic activities with caribou conservation and recovery.
- The Governments of Canada and Alberta signed the Section 11 Agreement for the Conservation and Recovery of the Woodland Caribou in Alberta under the Species At Risk Act in October 2020. The five-year agreement committed Alberta to complete and implement 11 sub-regional plans (SRPs), restore critical habitat, obtain at least 65 percent undisturbed habitat in each range, and achieve self-sustaining caribou populations over the long term.
- Only three SRPs have been completed so far: Bistcho Lake (2022), Cold Lake (2022, but now part of South Athabasca), and Upper Smoky (2025). The Section 11 Agreement expired at the end of 2025 without Alberta meeting its commitments or demonstrating a credible path to caribou recovery. Four additional draft SRPs have been released for public consultation since December 2025: South Athabasca, Caribou Mountains, Red Earth, and Berland.
- The five caribou populations covered by the last draft sub-regional plans are already living in disturbed landscapes. As of 2023, undisturbed habitat represented only 12.5 percent of the A La Peche winter range, 0.7 percent of the Little Smoky range (both part of the Berland sub-region), 41.2 percent of the Caribou Mountains range, 33 percent of the Yates range (both part of the Caribou Mountains sub-region), and 21.4 percent of the Red Earth range. These figures are far below the 65 percent undisturbed habitat threshold identified in the federal recovery strategy as necessary to provide a 60% probability of supporting self-sustaining caribou populations.
Under the Section 11 Agreement, the purpose of sub-regional planning was to provide landscape-level direction that would support caribou conservation and recovery, including meaningful management of cumulative land use impacts. However, the plans released to date have shifted away from that purpose. Approved plans lack content to protect caribou. Instead of establishing measurable objectives and enforceable actions for caribou conservation and recovery, they facilitate intensified industrial development while providing no meaningful provisions to enable improvement of the habitat conditions that caribou require.
For more information, please contact:
Pamela Narváez-Torres, Conservation Specialist, AWA, [email protected]
Tara Russell, Program Director, CPAWS Northern Alberta, [email protected]
Cheryl Bozarth Soll, President, Nature Alberta, [email protected]
Make a donation
Move conservation forward in Alberta.
Lasting protection for nature and wildlife in Alberta doesn’t happen overnight (although we wish it did)! Your donation fuels our fight for nature. Donate to support CPAWS Northern Alberta’s conservation efforts.
Donate