Where: Alberta, Canada

What's at stake: Nesting grounds for migratory birds

Threatened by: Tar sands oil extraction

Animals include: Black bear, wolf, tundra swan, Canada goose, Ross's goose, wood and plains buffalo, whooping crane, peregrine falcon, great horned owl, kingfisher, blue heron, loons, grebes, ducks, bald eagle and osprey.

• The Peace-Athabasca Delta is one of the largest freshwater deltas in the world, comprising three deltas: Athabasca (1,970 sq. km.), Peace (1,684 sq. km.) and Birch (168 sq. km.). It is a United Nations Wetland of International Importance.
• Most of the delta is within Wood Buffalo National Park. It also extends outside the park into the lands of the Mikisew Cree Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan Nation.
• The Peace-Athabasca Delta contains some of the largest undisturbed grass and sedge meadows in North America, which are the prime range for wood and plains buffalo.
• The world's entire population of the endangered whooping crane, which nests in the northern part of the park, migrates through the delta. Most global warming scenarios predict more dry years within the region where whooping cranes nest -- and dryness jeopardizes breeding.
• In Fort Chipewyan -- a Dene, Cree and Metis community downstream from the tar sands development -- community members hunt waterfowl in the migration seasons, collect eggs, use the feathers and sometimes the skins.
• Some types of birds, such as loons, are considered sacred by the Dene. Elders in a community are said to listen to the loons talk and tell them what was happening around the water.
• The communities have noticed increasing declines in waterfowl over the last 40 years from a number of causes -- a likely cause in recent years being the scale of tar sands mining.