World Heritage Identification Number: 256
World Heritage since: 1983
Category: Natural Heritage
WHE Type: Protected Areas & National Parks
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇨🇦 Canada
Continent: Americas
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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Wood Buffalo National Park: A Canadian Treasure
The expansive Wood Buffalo National Park, spanning over 44,807 square kilometers in the northern central region of Canada, stands as a testament to the country's commitment to preserving its unique and diverse wildlife and landscapes. Established in 1922, this vast protected area is the largest national park in Canada and the second-largest in the world, surpassed only by the Greenland National Park.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Situated on the plains in the north-central region of Canada, the park (which covers 44,807 km2) is home to North America's largest population of wild bison. It is also the natural nesting place of the whooping crane. Another of the park's attractions is the world's largest inland delta, located at the mouth of the Peace and Athabasca rivers.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (vii): The great concentrations of migratory wildlife are of world importance and the rare and superlative natural phenomena include a large inland delta, salt plains and gypsum karst that are equally internationally significant.
Criterion (ix): Wood Buffalo National Park is the most ecologically complete and largest example of the entire Great Plains-Boreal grassland ecosystem of North America, the only place where the predator-prey relationship between wolves and wood bison has continued, unbroken, over time.
Criterion (x): Wood Buffalo National Park contains the only breeding habitat in the world for the whooping crane, an endangered species brought back from the brink of extinction through careful management of the small number of breeding pairs in the park. The park’s size (4.5 million ha), complete ecosystems and protection are essential for in-situ conservation of the whooping crane.
Encyclopedia Record: Wood Buffalo National Park
Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest national park of Canada at 44,741 km2 (17,275 sq mi). It is in northeastern Alberta and the southern Northwest Territories. Larger in area than Switzerland, it is the second-largest national park in the world. The park was established in 1922 to protect the world's largest herd of free-roaming wood bison. They became hybridized after the introduction of plains bison. The population is currently estimated at 3,000. It is one of two known nesting sites of whooping cranes.Additional Site Details
Area: 4,480,000 hectares
Number of Components: 1
(ix) — Outstanding example representing ecological and biological processes
(x) — Contains most important habitats for biodiversity
Coordinates: 59.35833333 , -112.2933333
IUCN World Heritage Outlook
The 2025 Conservation Outlook on Wood Buffalo National Park reports the following assessment:
Source: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) · View assessment
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© No machine-readable author provided. Ansgar Walk assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
