The boreal forest region occupies the northern third of the province of Saskatchewan. It is the home range of the least fragmented population of woodland caribou in Canada, it is the homeland of the Athabasca Denesųłiné people, and it contains the Athabasca Basin, which is the site of intensive and expanding exploration and extraction of uranium and rare earth metals. Due to insufficient control of cumulative effects by government and industry; the Woodland Caribou (WLC), the overall ecological integrity of the area and the Denesųłiné culture are increasingly under threat. This session will detail the issues and the efforts of an Indigenous culture to protect and preserve their land while concurrently supporting mineral exploration and extraction at a level that is ecologically and socially sustainable. Topics to be address include:

• Understanding the issue at hand, the background and the landscape of cumulative effects
• Determining the project goals and methodology to address the issue
• Evaluating the findings and conclusions to date