The BC Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship made has finalized its decision on Boreal Caribou Protection and Recovery Plan.
The project is designed to protect and restore caribou habitat areas, with the goal to stabilize populations and helping caribou herds to return self-sustaining levels.
The province approved most of the recovery plan, with measures that will benefit four of the five caribou herds in Northern BC.
The Wildlife Habitat Areas (WHA) in Fort Nelson have been approved, but the ones near Fort St. John were not. WHA are areas that give boreal caribous a healthy and safe environment to live in.
The plan reduces human activity in these areas while improving the conditions of survival for boreal caribous. It limits industrial development, regulates access, and recommends regeneration measures in these habitats.
The BC Energy Regulator are placing temporary regulations in 1.4 million hectares of habitat important for caribou protection, which will block energy and resources activity in the area.
The recovery plan is expected to last more than 40 years, with monitoring and adjustments every five years.
The Fort Nelson First Nation played a major part in the making of the project, with the province recognizing caribou are of cultural importance.
As of May 16 of this year, the province estimates that the number of caribou dropped from 40,000 to 17,000 over the past century, with the biggest decline occurring over the past 40 years.