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UNESCO formally recommends industrial buffer around Gros Morne national park

Jul 14, 2016 | 4:11 PM

GROS MORNE, N.L. — The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is formally recommending Canada consider an industrial buffer zone for Gros Morne National Park in western Newfoundland.

The committee issued a draft decision in May, and on Thursday the latest step by the international agency was announced in a news release from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

The committee originally called for a buffer zone in 2014 after an oil drilling and hydraulic fracturing proposal near Gros Morne set off intense public debate.

At stake is the park’s world heritage status, granted in 1987 for its glacier-carved fjords, dramatic cliffs and geological features such as the Tablelands.