Akami−Uapishkᵘ−KakKasuak−Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve

Akami−Uapishkᵘ−KakKasuak−Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve sits in Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador. Created in 2015, it spans about 10,700 square kilometres, making it the biggest national park in eastern Canada. The reserve shields a wide stretch of boreal forest, tundra, and more than 50 kilometres of coastline along the Labrador Sea and Lake Melville. Wildlife includes the threatened Mealy Mountains woodland caribou herd, healthy populations of wild Atlantic salmon (which are declining elsewhere), wolf packs, black bears, martens, and two fox species. The park also hosts many fish and migratory birds. Management and planning are shared with Indigenous groups—the Innu, Inuit, and NunatuKavut—who keep their rights to traditional activities within the protected area.

Parks Canada’s national systems plan aims to represent 39 natural regions. The Innu had rejected Parks Canada’s earlier efforts since the 1970s, but in 2001, after a memorandum of understanding, the Innu Nation invited Parks Canada to study whether a new park could represent the east coast boreal forest in Labrador. A steering committee formed and held meetings near Lake Melville. Residents raised concerns about traditional land uses, such as personal cabins, boil-ups, cutting wood for personal use, gathering medicinal herbs, berry picking, fishing, and hunting, trapping, and snaring small game. By May 2008, the committee found the park feasible. It began as a reserve because of unresolved land claims with the Innu; a national park reserve is set aside to become a full national park once claims are settled, and in the meantime it is managed under the National Parks Act.

The park was announced on February 5, 2010, by Environment Minister Jim Prentice in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. At the same time, Newfoundland and Labrador announced a proposed Provincial Waterway Park adjacent to the Mealy Mountains, protecting the Eagle River watershed. Together, the two parks will cover about 13,000 square kilometres. Unlike most parks, this one allows traditional Aboriginal activities like hunting, trapping, fishing, and cutting wood for personal use, but bans further land development and mining. Larry Innes of the Canadian Boreal Initiative, a steering committee member, called it a policy change that fits local uses.