About
Alberta Wilderness Association is one of Alberta’s longest-serving conservation organizations. Our mission is to conserve wilderness and to complete a representative network of protected areas. Since 1965, AWA has inspired individuals to care for Alberta’s wild spaces through awareness and action. Headquartered in Calgary, AWA has more than 7,500 members/supporters from 226 communities in Alberta, Canada, and around the world.
Our Impact
Through public outreach, government consultations, and court cases AWA has realized important milestones on our protected areas journey. Our advocacy efforts contributed to:
- the development of the 1976 Coal Policy (instituted a de facto prohibition of coal mining in the vast majority of Alberta’s Rockies and Foothills)
- the development of the 1977 Eastern Slopes Policy
- the creation of Hay-Zama Lakes Wildland Provincial Park (WPP) in 1999 (efforts to create this Park marked the birth of AWA’s ongoing relationship with the Dene Tha’ First Nation)
- the twinning in 2008 of Hay-Zama Lakes WPP with the Dalai Lake National Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia, China. Both sites are designated Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention.
- securing a federal Emergency Protection Order in 2013 for greater sage-grouse, a species listed as Endangered under Canada’s Species-at-Risk Act (SARA).
- securing a Critical Habitat Population Order in December 2015 for westslope cutthroat trout, a Threatened species under SARA.
- the decision of the Alberta/Canada Joint Review Panel to reject the Grassy Mountain Coal Project (AWA participated as an intervener in the Hearing)
- AWA’s five-star rating from Charity Intelligence Canada. AWA is one of only two provincial environmental charities to receive CIC’s highest ranking.
