Emerald green forests and silty blue rivers weave through the Hudson Bay Lowlands, where ocean waters meet fast-flowing tributaries in a breathtaking, biodiverse landscape. This carbon-rich region, spanning over 67,000 square kilometres in northern Manitoba, is the ancestral territory of the Cree, Inuit, and Dene Peoples.

The Lowlands of Hudson Bay are also the home of the iconic polar bear, a population that is rapidly under threat. But there is hope. By acting now, we can protect denning areas for mothers and cubs, ensuring their survival for generations to come.

Since time immemorial, the original stewards of these lands have maintained deep cultural connections to the Hudson Bay Lowlands, ensuring its preservation through traditional practices and knowledge. Today, the Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Indigenous Protected Area project, led by five Nayhenaway Ininisewinuk (Cree) Nations, continues this legacy.

Learn more about how you can help them protect polar bears and the lands they call home by clicking below.

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Culture

The Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Conservation Project:

Culture and conservation are interwoven to safeguard this irreplaceable landscape.

The Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek Indigenous Protected Area project aims to protect a massive portion of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a globally significant ecosystem in northern Manitoba. This region is a natural treasure that’s not only home to a rich array of amazing wildlife, including polar bears, caribou, and songbirds, but also plays a crucial role in climate regulation by holding the equivalent of 8% of Canada’s annual carbon emissions.

CPAWS is honoured to support this Indigenous-led initiative, which prioritizes the protection of these sacred lands while fostering cultural resilience and stewardship.

“Kitaskeenan Kaweekanawaynichikatek” translates to “our land we want to protect,” and stewardship of this protected area will be managed by York Factory First Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation, Fox Lake Cree Nation, Shamattawa First Nation, and War Lake First Nation.

CPAWS fully endorses the project’s goals to protect their ancestral lands by establishing a protected area approximately 46,000 square kilometres in size by the end of 2027.

Learn more about the Nayhenaway Ininisewinuk Nations’ vision for this land by clicking here.

“For me, this project represents our reconnection back to that land. Our reconnection back to each other. We were all separated, and are now finding our way back to each other.”
Robben Constant, York Factory First Nation

Take Action

Support Stewardship

Support Nayhenaway Ininisewinuk stewardship of their traditional territories using our simple online tool.

Sign the pledge

Land

A Vibrant, Carbon-Rich Landscape

The Hudson Bay lowlands is one of the world’s largest peatlands, having the majority of Manitoba’s 21 million hectares of peatland. That’s an area around the size of Pakistan or just larger than the entire country of France. Peatlands are a rare wetland ecosystem made of layers and layers of moss and other plants, providing the important service of absorbing water, heavy metals and carbon. Peat is so good at storing carbon, it’s one the most well known nature-based climate solutions, fighting climate change by keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.

The peatlands stretching across the lowlands contain approximately 7 billion tonnes of soil organic carbon, if ever released into the atmosphere, the emissions would be equivalent to almost 6 billion cars driving on the road for a single year. Keeping carbon in the soil is a great way to prevent further changes to our climate. Protecting the peatlands of Hudson Bay would be a significant piece of Manitoba’s contribution to addressing global climate change.

Take Action

Protect this Land

Help protect our peatlands. Tell Premier Wab Kinew to make it a priority by using our simple letter writing tool.

Send A Letter

Wildlife

The tundra and subarctic forests surrounding Manitoba’s Hudson Bay coast yield incredible abundance that sustains both the people and wildlife that thrive there.

Hundreds of birds use the area as their yearlong homes, as a critical rest stop on their long migrations and as a safe place to raise their young. Wolves, foxes and wolverine hunt and scavenge on the heels of moose, hares and thunderous herds of caribou that in turn feed on the plants and lichen anchored in the deep, peat rich soils.

In spring, as the ice melts in Hudson Bay, hundreds of bears make their way to these lands to rest, raise their cubs and wait for the next hunting season.

Why are Polar Bears At Risk?

Manitoba’s bears, which live in the southern range of all polar bear habitat, are uniquely adapted to warmer weather; they dig their dens in the dirt instead of snow like other populations. Yet they are also at the greatest risk from climate change.

Pregnant bears in the Hudson Bay region already have to fast for up to eight months—twice as long as more northern bears—due to earlier ice breakup. Moms and their cubs have a long trek back to the sea ice where they can finally hunt for seals, as their inland denning sites can be as far as 150km from the coast.

With climate change warming the arctic, the ice breaks up earlier and earlier each spring, and takes longer to form in the fall. The average bear loses about one kilogram of weight per day as they wait for the ice to form. Protecting their inland habitat is critical to protect mothers and their cubs in this vulnerable season.

Climate Change

An overarching threat to sea ice habitat, climate change and its projected progression is anticipated to greatly reduce polar bear access to hunting grounds while increasing their onland fasting period.

Human Activities

Industrial scale mineral and hydroelectric development and their associated road networks carry inherent risks to the lands and wildlife with which they overlap. If operations are expanded without foresight, tourism can also have negative impacts on the natural environment.