Alberta Tries to Balance Oil and Gas Ambitions with Caribou Conservation

The Alberta government is trying to balance its goal of doubling oil and gas production by 2035 with protecting threatened woodland caribou populations in the province's boreal forests. The government is proposing new land-use plans for three regions, which span a combined 118,000 square kilometers of wilderness.

One region, called Berland, features oil and gas activity that contributes approximately $3.96 billion to Alberta's GDP and supports a labor force of about 5,000 people. However, it is also home to threatened caribou populations, with critical habitat including the À la Pêche southern mountain caribou range and the Little Smoky boreal caribou range.

Conservation groups are worried that the province's changes would prioritize industrial development at the expense of species-at-risk and their habitats. They frame caribou protection as a proxy for protecting the boreal forest ecosystem writ large, suggesting that when caribou numbers drop, it signals a broader biodiversity decline.