MERIDA, MEXICO -- (Marketwire) -- 11/07/09 -- The Honourable Jim Prentice, Canada's Environment Minister and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today announced an unprecedented memorandum of understanding with the U.S. and Mexico to cooperate on wilderness conservation across North America. The announcement was made at the 9th World Wilderness Congress (Wild 9) in Mexico, where the Minister delivered a keynote speech on Canadian leadership in wildlife conservation.

"This memorandum of understanding with the U.S. and Mexico to cooperate on wilderness conservation will lead to tangible benefits for wilderness and our protected places," said Minister Prentice. "We will be working towards common goals of building and restoring resilient, well-connected networks of protected areas that will be a wilderness legacy for the future."

Minister Prentice was invited to speak at the international congress in recognition of the Government's stewardship in the massive expansion of Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada, a World Heritage Site and the 6th largest national park in the world.

The public, international environmental forum is designed to bring together the full spectrum of wilderness-related views and is being attended by representatives from government, the private sector, native peoples, non-governmental organizations, academia and the arts.

The Government of Canada has permanently protected a massive expansion of the Nahanni National Park Reserve of Canada - the greatest conservation achievement in a generation. In addition, the Government has declared new wilderness areas in Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada, Fundy National Park of Canada, Vuntut National Park of Canada, and the Nahanni and permanently protected Saoyu and AEehdacho National Historic Site of Canada on the shores of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories.

(Also available on the Internet at www.pc.gc.ca under Media Room.)