Stephen Hazell
Director of Conservation
and Legal Counsel

A new day may have dawned for Canada’s species at risk. Nature Canada is very pleased that Prime Minister Trudeau  has directed Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to “enhance protection of Canada’s endangered species” as a top priority.

Implementing the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) is critical to this work. Last week, Nature Canada and seven other nature groups wrote a joint letter to Minister McKenna outlining some of the pressing shortcomings in implementing SARA including:

• Clearing up the backlog of  scientifically assessed species at risk  not yet declared to be legally at risk
• Getting caught up in preparing Recovery Strategies for threatened and endangered species
• Better supporting the work of  COSEWIC, the scientific advisory committee on species at risk

The previous federal government fell behind badly in legally listing species recommended for at risk status by COSEWIC. The backlog goes back four years, and includes more than 100 species, including Barn and Bank Swallows and the western Grizzly Bear population.

Preparing recovery strategies for endangered, threatened and extirpated species at risk—including identification of critical habitat–is another priority. The preparation of recovery strategies needs to be an objective, scientific exercise to identify broad strategies to ensure species’ survival and recovery.

You can save endangered and threatened species by encouraging the Minister and the new government to act by Popular Demand!

Here’s how you can help today:

Please consider signing Nature Canada’s petition requesting that the Minister immediately list the Barn and Bank Swallows as threatened.

Learn More Here:

To learn more about protecting endangered species, check out these news articles from the Ottawa Citizen:
Triage in the wild: Is it time to choose which species live and which die out?

Canada, once a global leader in conservation, is among the world’s biggest cheapskates when it comes to spending to save disappearing wildlife.

To learn more about biodiversity targets, click here.