Learn about the Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement

The Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement took effect in April 2023. It is a 3-year agreement that invests $20.6 million to protect and conserve new areas of the Yukon. It also enhances efforts to monitor and protect species at risk.

The Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement is supporting:

• protecting new areas of the Yukon and creating a pathway to protect 30 per cent of land and waters by 2030;
• supporting Indigenous leadership in conservation;
• working with Yukon First Nations to protect species at risk; and
• increasing knowledge collection and data sharing between the governments of the Yukon, Canada and First Nations governments.

Read the full Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement.

Protected areas in the Yukon

The Yukon currently has 21.1 per cent of lands designated as protected and conserved. This is 101,710 km² in total. Protected lands make up the majority. This includes;

• territorial parks;
• habitat protection areas;
• national parks;
• national wildlife areas; and
• special management areas.

Explore Yukon parks and conservation areas.

View parks, protected and conservation area map data.

Increasing protected and conserved areas

A goal of the Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement is to increase protected and conserved areas in the Yukon. This includes supporting Canada’s goal towards protecting 30 per cent of land and waters in Canada by 2030.

The Yukon First Nations Final Agreements and the Inuvialuit Final Agreement include commitments to protect areas. We're building on these commitments to increase the Yukon’s protected areas.

The Government of Yukon will only report an area as protected with the support of the local Yukon First Nations. Some areas need the support of the Inuvialuit or a transboundary First Nation.

Work that will contribute to increasing the percentage of reported protected areas in the Yukon includes;

• designating protected areas identified in the Peel Watershed and relinquishing mineral claims in these areas, per the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan;
• establishing Dàadzàii Vàn as a new Territorial Park as per the North Yukon Regional Land Use Plan;
• designating the Pickhandle Lakes Habitat Protection Area as protected, per the Kluane First Nation Final Agreement;
• reporting protected areas identified in the Dawson Regional Land Use Plan once completed; and
• reporting other areas as identified together with Yukon First Nations, the Inuvialuit, or a transboundary First Nation.

Indigenous leadership in conservation

Yukon First Nations, Inuvialuit and transboundary First Nations have relied on the Yukon’s lands and waters for generations. They have long been leaders in protecting the Yukon’s natural environment.

Indigenous leaders worked to include protected areas in their Final Agreements. This includes establishing areas like:

• territorial parks;
• habitat protection areas; and
• national parks.

Many habitat protection areas include First Nation settlement land at the request of the First Nation.

The Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement provides funding to support continued Indigenous leadership in conservation. This includes support for:

• identifying new conservation and protection interests; and
• working together to protect species at risk.

Cumulative effects

The Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement includes funding to support planning processes and monitoring of cumulative effects on the environment.  

Cumulative effects are the impacts on our values from natural and human-caused changes to the landscape over time. Values can include things such as caribou, moose or water quality. Activities such as resource extraction, land development and climate change can impact these values.

The Yukon does not currently have a framework for considering cumulative effects in land use planning, project assessment or decision-making processes. Funding from the Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement supports collaboration with Yukon First Nations and transboundary Indigenous governments and groups to develop an Ecological Cumulative Effects Framework.

Supporting species at risk

Climate change and human impacts on the environment change ecosystems. They put Yukon species and their habitats at risk.

The Canada-Yukon Nature Agreement includes funding to help protect species at risk. The funding will support:

• developing a management approach for species at risk with Indigenous governments and groups;
• developing species at risk legislation with Indigenous governments and groups;
• increasing assessment, monitoring, and conservation of species at risk; and
• recovery activities for boreal caribou, barren-ground caribou, and wood bison.

Read about species at risk in the Yukon.