Species and Ecosystems at Risk

The website Endangered Species and Ecosystems in British Columbia, provides links to detailed information on rare and endangered species and ecosystems in BC, helps you find national and global information about species in B.C. and beyond, and provides links to provincial agencies and other agencies working with endangered species. BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer, the search tool associated with the website, enables you to find provincial species and ecological communities; Red- and Blue-listed species/ecological communities; all ecological communities and Red- and Blue-listed species by Forest District and/or Biogeoclimatic unit; species and ecological community status, legal designation, distribution, life histories, conservation needs, recovery plans and more; and direct links to relevant publications about species and ecological communities.

Species and ecosystems at risk in British Columbia number in the hundreds. British Columbia is Canada's most biologically diverse province. How do we balance development with our responsibility to protect this diversity? One of the first steps is to identify those species and ecosystems that have become most vulnerable. Many such species and ecosystems have been identified, through the cooperation of scientists and experts throughout the province, and each has been assigned a global and provincial rank by the B.C. Conservation Data Centre (CDC) (est. 1991), according to an objective set of criteria established by the Nature Conservancy (US). The ranks assigned and listed in the tracking lists maintained by the CDC provide the basis for the Red and Blue lists of the Ministry of Environment (MoE). These lists include taxa that have population characteristics, population trends, or distributions which indicate that they require special attention so that they may be maintained as part of the wildlife of British Columbia. To date, the MoE Red and Blue lists have included only vertebrates. One red-listed species is the Vancouver Island Marmot. Red and Blue lists are also available for butterflies and moths, dragonflies and damselflies, marine invertebrate animals, other invertebrate animals, vascular plants, and mosses.

Placing taxa on these lists flags them as being at risk and requiring investigation. The Red and Blue lists provide a list of species for consideration for more formal designation as Endangered or Threatened, either provincially under the British Columbia Wildlife Act, or nationally by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and provide a method of assigning conservation priorities for species considered at risk in British Columbia. Recovery planning is a process undertaken to ensure the survival and recovery of these species and ecosystems at risk.

The Ministry also lists taxa considered to be secure in British Columbia on the Yellow List - these taxa are managed at the habitat level by managing for a diversity of habitats in the province.

See our brochure on Species Ranking in B.C. (PDF) for more details and an explanation of ranks and list status.

See the list of
Species and Ecosystems
at Risk brochures

British Columbia
Conservation Data Centre

The B.C. Conservation Data Centre (CDC) was established in 1991 to assist in identifying those species and ecosystems that have become most vulnerable in the province, and to compile this information so that it is accessible and usable. The Conservation Data Centre is now part of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management.

Identified Wildlife Management Strategy

The Identified Wildlife Management Strategy (IWMS) is an initiative of the Ministry of Environment in partnership with the Ministry of Forests and carried out in consultation with other resource ministries, stakeholders and the public. Statutory authority is provided for the Ministry of Environment to carry out this strategy under provisions of the Forest and Range Practices Act and regulations.

The term "Identified Wildlife" refers to those Species at Risk and Regionally Important Wildlife that the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection, designates as requiring special management attention under the Forest and Range Practices Act. Species at Risk may include endangered, threatened, or vulnerable species of vertebrates and invertebrates, and endangered or threatened plants and plant communities that are negatively affected by forest or range management on Crown land and are not adequately protected by other mechanisms. Regionally Important Wildlife includes species that are considered important to a region of British Columbia, rely on habitats that are not otherwise protected under the Forest and Range Practices Act, and may be adversely affected by forest or range practices.

The IWMS provides direction, policy, procedures and guidelines for managing Identified Wildlife. The goals of the Strategy are to minimize the effects of forest and range practices on Identified Wildlife situated on Crown land and to maintain their limiting habitats throughout their current ranges and, where appropriate, their historic ranges. In some cases, with direction from Recovery Teams, this will entail restoration of previously occupied habitats, particularly for those species most at risk. Identified Wildlife are managed through the establishment of wildlife habitat areas (WHAs), general wildlife measures (GWMs) and wildlife habitat area objectives, or through other management practices specified in strategic or landscape level plans.