Terrestrial Thresholds Project

The aboriginal community of Fort McKay is situated in the centre of Alberta's Athabasca oil sands development. As industrial activities increase in Fort McKay’s traditional territory, there is a need for the community to develop a clear understanding of the wide range of benefits and liabilities associated with cumulative land-use decisions in their territory, and an approach to setting community objectives for sustainable ecological and socio-economic conditions. The objective of this project is to provide community members and their leadership with defensible, transparent and science-based information on the current and projected future states of the environment in the community’s traditional territory. The project approach involves supporting the community of Fort McKay in shaping land-use strategies for their traditional territory, through:

1. Community-led selection of environmental, social, and economic indicators, and application of land-use and ecological simulation modelling to generate information on the states of these indicators in pre-development, current, and probable future conditions; and

2. Community identification of objectives with respect to selected indicators, and community-led development of management and mitigation strategies to achieve these objectives.