What is the issue?

Wildlife populations and their habitats have been disappearing rapidly due to extensive human activities that have resulted in deforestation, the spread of nonnative species, the loss of wetlands, and air and water pollution. The world’s plants, animals, and other organisms all play a key role in maintaining the Earth’s atmosphere, climate, landscapes, and water in a way that will allow for our continued economic sustainability. Loss of species impairs the Earth’s ability to provide those services on which people and economic prosperity depend. Canadians need to know more about their country’s natural legacy and its significance to ecological processes and functions.

What do we know?

Canada is home to approximately 70 000 known species of wild plants, animals, and other organisms. New species are still being discovered. In the early 1990s, as many as 60 new insect species were identified in the canopies of old-growth forests in the Carmanah Valley and South Moresby on the west coast.

Despite these new species, studies are showing that a growing number of species are at risk of eventual extinction. Recent surveys of Belugas of the southeast Baffin Island–Cumberland Sound population indicate that fewer than 400 Belugas are left out of a population that numbered about 5 000 in the early 1920s. In the St. Lawrence, from the estimated original population of 5 000 Belugas, only about 500 remain. Causes of the decline in populations include exploitation, alteration of habitats, and disturbances caused by ships and leisure craft. Degradation of water quality and environmental contaminants such as PCBs, DDT, mirex, and heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and selenium are also linked to declines in Beluga populations.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) determined that a total of 337 species were at risk of imminent or eventual extinction (i.e., endangered, threatened, or of special concern) in Canada as of November 2000. Of the 123 species reexamined by scientists in recent years, 27 have seen their status deteriorate. The Prairie grasslands, southern Ontario, and the southern Okanagan region of British Columbia are some of the areas where a large number of species have been identified as being at risk.

• Click to zoom on Species at risk in Canada, November 2000
• Species at risk in Canada, November 2000 (html)

What do we need to know?

Declines in species populations are usually linked to habitat destruction or fragmentation as a result of various land-use activities, such as forestry, agriculture, and urbanization. Toxic chemical exposure also plays a role. Some wildlife biologists also believe that acid rain and ultraviolet radiation are partially the cause of population declines of some species of waterfowl and amphibians. The complex ways in which an ecosystem works can make it difficult to find a single cause for changes in wildlife populations. More scientific knowledge about ecosystem processes, the related stresses from human activity, and their effects on species is necessary. Further knowledge of the spatial distribution of species at risk and of species' migratory behaviour, population size, and population trends is also required to provide Canadians with an understanding of causes behind the disappearance of various species of wildlife and of the science of species recovery.

to view more info, visit : http://www.sis.ec.gc.ca/msapps/ec_species/htdocs/ec_species_e.phtml

What are we doing based on the information we have?

The recently proposed Species At Risk Act (SARA) is designed to help prevent wildlife in Canada from becoming extinct and to provide for the recovery of species at risk. The proposed legislation will include the COSEWIC list in a public registry and will provide the authority to prohibit the killing of endangered or threatened species as well as the destruction of their critical habitats on all lands in Canada. Mandatory recovery strategies and action plans for endangered or threatened species and management plans for species of special concern are also being proposed under the legislation.

SARA is one component of the Government of Canada's strategy to protect species at risk; the two other components are the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk and the Habitat Stewardship Program. Individual wildlife species are being protected through the implementation of hunting regulations and restrictions, the Habitat Stewardship Program and recovery plans, and habitat protection plans.

A national ban on the use of lead shot for hunting most migratory birds came into effect in September 1999, after research indicated that at least a quarter of a million waterfowl died each year after mistakenly eating lead pellets. Humans and predatory wildlife consuming these birds were also at risk of lead exposure.

There are already a number of recovery activities under way in Canada under the Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife (RENEW) program launched in 1988, and these will complement the federal recovery process under the proposed Species at Risk Act (SARA). Under the 1996 Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk with the provinces and territories, and under the proposed SARA, the scope of the national recovery program has expanded to include all endangered and threatened species and, where possible, extirpated species. Recovery planning for groups of species or particular ecosystems, such as the southern Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and the Carolinian forest in Ontario, are also being focused on. In the last year, recovery efforts have included the establishment of 47 recovery teams, the approval of 17 recovery plans, and the preparation of 21 draft recovery plans. Through the Habitat Stewardship Program, approximately $5 million were given in 2000–2001 to over 60 partnership projects with local and regional organizations and communities.

Ecosystems at risk are being protected through agreements such as the trilateral North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), where waterfowl populations can be restored through the establishment of wetland habitat throughout North America. Plan activities benefit a whole range of wildlife species including many that are endangered. More than 805 700 hectares have been conserved in Canada since the establishment of NAWMP in 1986. Canada's goal is to secure 1 million hectares by 2002–2003.

•  Download Annual and cumulative accomplishments of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in Canada, 1996-99(MS-Excel)  
• Annual and cumulative accomplishments of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in Canada, 1996-99 (HTML)

Further information

For further information on the issue of species at risk, please consult*:

• Canadian Wildlife Service:
  www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/cws-scf/cwshom_e.html
• Cetaceans of Canada, Beluga:
  www.mi.mun.ca/mi-net/fishdeve/cetace13.htm
• Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada:
  www.cosewic.gc.ca/cosewic/default.cfm
• Environment Canada’s Green Lane, nature site:
  www.ec.gc.ca/envpriorities/nature_e.htm
• Map search for species at risk in Canada:
  www.speciesatrisk.gc.ca/Species/English/enda_english.cfm
• North American Waterfowl Management Plan:
  www.nawmp.ca/
• Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife (RENEW):
  www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/es/renew/RENEW99_00/eng/index.htm
• Species at risk:
  www.speciesatrisk.gc.ca/sar/main.htm

*Note: Information found on some sites is presented only in the language in which it was written. We apologize for any inconvenience.