A partnership agreement to recover the endangered central group of southern mountain caribou has been signed by Chiefs of the West Moberly First Nations and Saulteau First Nations and Ministers of the British Columbia and Canadian governments.
The agreement has a 30-year term and is the first of its kind in Canada.
Approximately two million acres of land will be placed into protected areas, where Caribou habitat will remain undisturbed by new industrial development activities. The partnership agreement is centred around the Klinse-za (Twin Sisters) mountains and the Klinse-za caribou herd. In 2013, when the herd numbered just 16 animals and was facing extirpation, West Moberly and Saulteau began a maternal penning program to give newborn calves a better chance of escaping predators.