Driving species to extinction should be illegal
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
Join the movement to save endangered species
Hi Paov,
It’s no secret that wildlife are suffering from habitat destruction, climate change and unsustainable harvesting. I’ve witnessed caribou populations plummeting, spotted owls dwindling to just three individuals and salmon returning in record-low numbers. I’m sure you’ve felt the weight of the biodiversity crisis. Fewer birds, fewer unexpected encounters with wild mammals and even fewer insects buzzing around.
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variety of living things on Earth. Worldwide biodiversity is declining and BC is no exception.
This extraordinary movement comes at a pivotal moment to halt biodiversity loss in this province.
In 2017, Environment Minister George Heyman’s mandate included establishing a species at risk law. This law could’ve finally protected species at risk — endangered, threatened and of special concern — and their habitats. But in 2019 Premier John Horgan announced the government would no longer be enacting a species at risk law. In 2021, the BC government committed to a paradigm shift in the woods which includes legally establishing ecosystem health and biodiversity as a priority. This is an opportunity to finally get species at risk legal protection through a biodiversity law. Right now, over 1,900 species and subspecies at risk in BC remain helpless, with no legal mechanism that automatically protects them from habitat destruction on non-federal land.
Climate change and old-growth logging have become contentious and hot political topics thanks to activists doing an incredible job demanding answers and action. But somehow, wildlife protection has taken the back seat. This is the movement to change that. We need the same amount of dedication and urgency as the old-growth crisis to make the government act on extinction. Sign the letter / Join the movement Together we’re going to stop biodiversity loss.
For at-risk wildlife,
Charlotte Dawe
Conservation and Policy Campaigner
Wilderness Committee Donate