Species at Risk Act

Canada's Species at Risk Act: Implementation at a Snail's Pace
Report Released April 2009

Recovery Strategies

BOREAL WOODLAND CARIBOU The government recently engaged a team of 18 independent scientists, supported by additional experts and a management team at Environment Canada, to develop a scientific review for the identification of critical habitat for the boreal population of woodland caribou. In April, a robust, science-based review was released that recommended critical habitat for the caribou. The science in this report should provide government, industry and conservationists with the tools needed to ensure the persistence of boreal woodland caribou populations in Canada.

The primary cause of decline for 84% of species at risk in Canada is habitat loss (4). In order to maintain, protect and restore the habitat that is needed by a species, that habitat must first be identified. The Act requires that critical habitat — the habitat needed by a species to survive or recover — must be identified, to the extent possible based on the best available information, in a recovery strategy under SARA.

However, not only have recovery strategies often failed to identify critical habitat when it was possible to do so, the majority of recovery strategies have been delayed, ignoring legal timelines. Recovery strategies are due for 282 species, but have only been completed for 99 species. And out of those recovery strategies that have been released, only 21% identify at least some part of the species' critical habitat (5).

Notes
(4) Venter, O., N. N. Brodeur, L. Nemiroff, B. Belland, I. J. Dolinsek and J. W. A. Grant. 2006. Threats to endangered species in Canada. Bioscience 56(11): 903 – 910.
(5) See Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development to the House of Commons, March 2008.

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