BRITISH COLUMBIA IS A CENTRE OF
WORLD HERITAGE

Since 1972, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, has been designating some of the world's unique natural and cultural spaces for protection and preservation. Known as World Heritage Sites--there are now 690 of them--these areas include such famous landmarks as the Galapagos Islands, the Egyptian pyramids, the Acropolis in Athens, Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge and Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The Haida village of Ninstints, one of 4 BC World Heritage Sites. Duane Sept photo

Of the 13 World Heritage Sites in Canada, British Columbia contains all or a portion of four, more than any other province. They stretch from the towering peaks of the St Elias Mountains in the northwest corner of the province to the isolated Akamina Pass in the extreme southeast, and from the abandoned village of Ninstints (or Nan Sdins) on the Queen Charlotte Islands to the alpine beauty of the Rocky Mountain national parks.

1. Ninstints

Anthony Island (SGaang Gwaii) is a tiny island off the southern end of Moresby Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands archipelago, home of the Haida people. A sheltered bay on Anthony was the site of Ninstints (Nan Sdins), where a village flourished for thousands of years. With the arrival of Europeans, the Haida homeland was stricken by epidemic diseases that devastated many villages, including Ninstints. By the 1880s most of the inhabitants had died or moved away, and by 1900 only rotting remnants of the cedar houses and monuments remained. During the 1930s and again in the 1950s, salvage teams removed several totem poles from the site and installed them in museums away from the islands. What remained was preserved in 1958 within Anthony Island Provincial Park. The ruins, slowly being overtaken by the lush rain forest, have been compared to the lost jungle cities of Mexico and Cambodia. In 1981 the unique character of Ninstints and its decaying remnants was recognized internationally when UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site.

2. Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

This World Heritage Site designates for protection a vast area of the Canadian Rocky Mountains straddling the border between Alberta and British Columbia. It includes four national parks: Banff and Jasper in Alberta, and Kootenay and Yoho in BC, along with the Burgess Shale, a treasure trove of marine fossils dating back millions of years, located high in the mountains above the community of Field, BC. The site also encompasses Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks, to comprise a total of 22,990 sq km of some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world. Among the many natural features of the area are Takakkaw Falls, the second highest waterfall in Canada; O'Hara and Emerald lakes; Mt Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies; and the hot springs at Radium. The site was designated in 1985.

3. Waterton Glacier International Peace Park

In the far southeast corner of British Columbia, Akamina Pass cuts through the Rocky Mountains across the provincial boundary into Alberta. The area is so remote that the only road access is from the Alberta side of the border. In 1995 the provincial government created Akamina-Kishinena Provincial Park, and the same year UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site encompassing the new provincial park and neighbouring Waterton National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana. This isolated, mountainous corner of the province lies at the intersection of five major vegetation zones and contains plants and animals found nowhere else in BC. The area is home to one of the densest populations of grizzly bears in North America.

4. Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness

Rising in the St Elias Mountains in the northwest corner of British Columbia, the turbulent Tatshenshini River is one of the finest whitewater rafting rivers of the world. The area provides habitat for a large number of grizzly bears, Canada's only population of glacier bears and the world's largest concentration of Dall's sheep. The provincial government protected the area in Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial Park and in 1994 the park was linked to adjacent Kluane National Park Reserve in the Yukon and two national parks in Alaska to create a spectacular 97,000 sq km World Heritage Site.

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