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Species At Risk Act: Fulfilling Its Mandate

RECOMMENDATION SUMMARY:
Renew the government’s commitment to the Species At Risk Act (SARA) with a $275 million investment (over 5 years) in order to permit, for the first time, the effective implementation of SARA’s mandate, with a priority emphasis on providing capacity for recovery teams to identify critical habitat at the recovery strategy stage, for departments to review and approve critical habitat designations, and for increased enforcement actions to protect species at risk and their habitat. A federally-funded, independent evaluation of federal species at risk programs found
that the Government has not sufficiently organized nor funded these programs in order to meet international commitments and legally-mandated deadlines.

Investment Required
$275 million over five years (2007-2011).

Benefits for Canadians

  • Safeguard Canada’s biological heritage, leading to improved ecosystem health,
  • Involve Canadians directly in local stewardship activities to benefit species at risk,
  • Identify and protect the critical habitat of species at risk, an essential step in the path towards species recovery, and
  • Protect species at risk and their critical habitat in a timely manner, reducing the need for more costly recovery interventions for species in the future.

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Background and Rationale
The decline and loss of species is a global issue, with the current rate of loss of species placing us in the midst of a massive extinction crisis. Overwhelmingly, these species declines and extinctions stem from human activity, including factors such as habitat loss, pollution, over-exploitation, and climate change.

The 2006 World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Species tallies a total of 16,119 species as threatened with extinction (of the small proportion of global species that have actually been assessed). This list of threatened species includes one in three of the world’s amphibians, almost half of all freshwater turtles, one in four mammals, and one in eight bird species.

Canada is not immune to the extinction crisis. In the face of this challenge, Canada ratified the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which included a commitment to pass legislation for the protection of species at risk. However, many of our species remain imperilled – as of 2006, 13 species have been assessed as extinct and 22 species have been extirpated from Canada. More than 500 species have been classified as at risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). To address the CBD commitment, the Government of Canada devised a three-part Strategy for the Protection of Species at Risk, encompassing the Accord for the Protection of Species At Risk that was endorsed by the provinces and territories, the Species At Risk Act (SARA), and the Habitat Stewardship Program.

SARA came into force in 2003, and has the purposes of preventing wildlife species from being extirpated or becoming extinct, providing for the recovery of wildlife species that are extirpated, endangered or threatened as a result of human activity, and managing species of special concern to prevent them from becoming endangered or threatened. SARA establishes prohibitions against harm of species at risk, protection of residence, and obligations for recovery planning and critical habitat identification. It also contains a provision to enable protecting species and habitat on an emergency basis. Environment Canada, the Parks Canada Agency, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are responsible for the implementation of SARA.

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Implementation challenges — recovery planning and critical habitat identification
The coming into force of SARA was a phased approach, with two-thirds of the sections of the Act taking effect June 2003, and the sections covering prohibitions and enforcement of the law taking effect June 2004. This approach was intended to allow the Government of Canada to develop policies, programs and regulations before all of the sections of the law took effect.

An independent, federally-funded, evaluation of federal species at risk programs conducted by Stratos Inc. found that Environment Canada has not organized itself appropriately to deliver fully on its obligations and commitments under the Act; a fully coordinated and federally consistent approach is not yet apparent; significant risks to the Government may exist due to a failure to meet the responsibilities towards Aboriginal peoples; and that resource and capacity gaps exists in several areas that create legal risks to the Government of Canada.

Some of the main implementation challenges include:

  1. Failure to meet legally-mandated deadlines for the creation of recovery strategies. As of September 29th, 2006, only 23 recovery strategies, out of 133 that were due, are posted on the SARA registry. These strategies are a key instrument in the recovery of species at risk, as they identify the species’ critical habitat or set forth a schedule of studies for doing so.
  2. Failure to identify critical habitat for species at risk in recovery strategies. To date, of the 23 recovery strategies posted on the SARA registry, only 3 identify critical habitat, and 6 partially identify critical habitat. Only once a species’ critical habitat has been formally identified in this manner do SARA’s prohibitions against the destruction of a species’ critical habitat apply.
  3. Failure to complete key policy documents. The independent Stratos Inc. evaluation noted: ‘Where provinces/territories are leading recovery planning efforts, they report a reluctance to identify critical habitat on non-federal lands until the supporting policy framework is clarified (e.g., compensation, effective protection, identification of critical habitat, etc.).’

Thus, for SARA to live up to its full potential of protecting at-risk species and their critical habitat, recovery strategies must be finalized and critical habitat identified in a timely manner and must be scientifically rigorous and accurate — an exercise that will take significant capacity at the level of individual species recovery teams as well as core SARA departments in the coming years. Additional capacity will be required for on-the-ground enforcement activities, in order to translate critical habitat delineations into strong protections for species at risk.

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Detailed Recommendation
Federal re-investment is required in order to ensure that the Species At Risk Act is implemented in a rigorous, timely, and effective manner. While the three federal departments responsible for SARA have a minimal base level of funding allocated to this (currently $45 million per year allocated among Environment Canada, Parks Canada Agency and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans), additional funding extended for the Act’s implementation ($30 million/year) will run out in 2006/07. The independent evaluation of federal species at risk programs concluded that the “departments’ current and limited program delivery will be further impaired should funding levels decrease” as scheduled. The Green Budget Coalition supports an extension and increase of the current level of funding if clear measures are taken to address the implementation challenges outlined.

The Green Budget Coalition recommends that the Government of Canada renew its commitment to effective implementation of the Species At Risk Act in 2007 with a $275 million investment to Environment Canada, Parks Canada, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, over 5 years (2007–2011). This funding should be allocated with a priority emphasis on: providing significant capacity for recovery teams to identify, at the recovery strategy stage, critical habitat needed for species’ survival and recovery; ensuring departmental scientific capacity to review and approve critical habitat designations; completing key supporting policy documents and increasing departmental enforcement capabilities in order to ensure that SARA prohibitions protecting species and their critical habitat are upheld.

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Alternative and Complementary Policies
The government could enter into and finalize bilateral agreements with the provinces under the Accord for the Protection of Species At Risk in order to provide strong protection for federally listed species at risk and their habitat found on non-federal lands.

Contacts:

Sarah Wren
Nature Canada
613-562-3447 ext. 300
swren@naturecanada.ca

Gillian McEachern
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS)
416-938-6032
gmceachern@cpaws.org

Rachel Plotkin
David Suzuki Foundation
800-453-1533
rplotkin@davidsuzuki.org

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