Pimachiowin Aki

Pimachiowin Aki means "the land that gives life" in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe). It is 2,904,000 hectares — 29,040 km² — of boreal forest, wetlands, lakes and free-flowing rivers straddling the border between Manitoba and Ontario, east of Lake Winnipeg. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 1 July 2018 and is Canada's first and only mixed property, that is, recognised for its natural and cultural values alike, which here are held to be indivisible.

The territory comprises the traditional lands of four Anishinaabe First Nations — Bloodvein River, Little Grand Rapids, Pauingassi and Poplar River — who have lived there for at least 7,000 years, plus several adjoining protected areas: the Atikaki and South Atikaki provincial parks in Manitoba, and Woodland Caribou Provincial Park and the Eagle-Snowshoe conservation reserve in Ontario. Four small permanent communities live within the property and move through a complex network of waterways, routes and seasonal camps to fish, hunt and gather according to their traditional practices. The cultural value recognised by UNESCO is the living tradition of Ji-ganawendamang Gidakiiminaan, "keeping the land": honouring the Creator's gifts, respecting all forms of life and maintaining harmonious relations with others, in a worldview that ascribes animacy to natural elements.

In natural terms, it is one of the last great ecologically intact fragments of the southern boreal forest, a biome heavily fragmented across the rest of the planet. Its size and continuity allow the processes that structure it to keep working at full scale: the natural fire regime, the flow of nutrients, the movements of species and the predator-prey relationships between wolf, moose and woodland caribou, or between lynx and snowshoe hare. It is home to woodland caribou — a threatened species — wolverine, lake sturgeon, leopard frog, loon and Canada warbler, and within it rise the Berens, Bloodvein, Pigeon and Poplar rivers. Traditional Anishinaabe use, including sustainable fishing, hunting and trapping, is recognised as an integral part of the ecosystem itself.