Valuing the interlinkages between nature and culture in the planning and management of Pimachiowin Aki World Heritage Site, Canada

Pimachiowin Aki (the Land That Gives Life) was inscribed in 2018 on the World Heritage List as Mixed Cultural and Natural Heritage under criteria (iii), (vi) and (ix). Composed of Atikaki Provincial Park, Woodland Caribou Provincial Park, the Eagle-Snowshoe Conservation Reserve, and four First Nations’ Traditional Use Planning Areas, Pimachiowin Aki, is an exceptional example of the global boreal biome and a cultural landscape that provides testimony to the tradition of Ji-ganawendamang Gidakiiminaan (Keeping the Land). Anishinaabe First Nations signed an Accord in 2002 to protect and care for ancestral lands and way of life, and to seek inscription of a World Heritage site. In 2006, First Nations and provincial governments created the Pimachiowin Aki Corporation, a not-for-profit charitable organization to prepare the nomination and develop a management plan according to principles of mutual respect and collaboration.