Species at Risk

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Abstract

The highest number of species at risk is in the southern areas of Canada where human activity is most extensive and intensive. As of May 2002, 30 animal and plant species had disappeared in Canada. Eleven of these species are no longer found anywhere on the Earth. For most species the greatest threat is the alteration of habitat or essential growing conditions. The major national recovery program of endangered species in Canada is called RENEW, Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife. Canada is committed to implementing sustainable development, and establishment of protected areas representing all of Canada’s landscapes and species.

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Species at risk include native mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, plants and mollusks that have been assessed as being at risk of extinction at a national level. The majority of reports on these species make a clear link to specific human activities, which because of their intensity, extent, or persistence, have negatively affected the habitat or condition of particular species. The distribution of species at risk, therefore, is a reasonable indicator of the distribution of a variety of threats.

Species Recovery

The recovery of a species in the wild is impossible without the recovery of the ecosystem components, structure and processes that provide the habitat for its survival. The major national recovery program for endangered species in Canada is called RENEW, the committee for the Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife. RENEW was established in 1988 by the Wildlife Ministers’ Council of Canada as a response to the growing number of endangered species in Canada. The committee includes federal, provincial and territorial wildlife agencies along with several non-governmental organizations (the Canadian Nature Federation, the Canadian Wildlife Federation and Wildlife Habitat Canada). For the period 1988 to 1998, the combined funding for RENEW from all sources totalled over $27 million.

The committee has the following national objectives:

• No endangered species in Canada will be allowed to become extirpated or extinct.
• No new species will be allowed to become threatened or up-listed to endangered.
• When and where possible, extirpated species will be reintroduced to Canada.
• Recovery plans will be prepared for all threatened and endangered species.
• Recovery programs will be initiated, where feasible, to work towards removing species from threatened, endangered, or extirpated status.

At present, the RENEW committee’s activities focus primarily on the protection and recovery of terrestrial vertebrates, which includes mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. However, the scope of activities is expanding and now includes an ecosystem recovery team and will soon include recovery teams for other biota, such as plants. Wildlife experts are also considering several new recovery approaches such as threat-abatement and multiple species recovery planning. Essential to species recovery efforts is the rehabilitation of suitable habitat conditions that will enable a species to exist. Since 1988, the committee (which overall has brought 50 species under its mandate) has approved recovery plans for 19 species. Two species have since been down-listed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) (ferruginous hawk and tundra peregrine falcon) and two have been de-listed (Baird’s sparrow and prairie long-tailed weasel), leaving the number of extirpated, endangered and threatened terrestrial vertebrates at 46 as of March 31, 1998. Of these, recovery teams are currently functioning for 33 species.

In the twelve ecozones in Canada, there are many species at risk. Refer to Table 1 for a list of these species, recommended by COSEWIC as candidates for assessment under the Species at Risk Act.