Huge legal gaps allow wildlife collapse in BC
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
We are so close
Hi Paov,
This year, the BC government is revisiting an old promise that would save millions of species that call this land home. It’s promising a provincial law to protect biodiversity. Help us hold it to account.
We need a law — co-developed with Indigenous Peoples — that prioritizes biodiversity and ecosystem health and protects at-risk species. Our new report, written by biologist Jared Hobbs and co-commissioned with Sierra Club BC makes it clear it's a standalone law for species or bust when it comes to halting extinction.
In the report, we analyze existing federal and provincial protections for at-risk species in BC. Although there is a federal Species at Risk Act, it has many weaknesses. The patchwork of laws BC relies on is also not doing enough to protect species at risk. This means the federal and provincial framework currently allows extinction.
The key findings of the report are:
- Governments missed the legal deadline for developing critical habitat maps for 97 per cent of the species studied. In the case of the spotted owl, critical habitat maps are 18 years and counting overdue despite there only being one known wild owl left.
- On average, recovery plans for species at risk were 9.8 years behind the schedule required under the federal Species at Risk Act
- BC’s existing laws do not address all of the threats that cause species decline. For example, under B.C’s forestry law, logging companies are not required to survey for endangered or threatened species when laying out cutblock boundaries.
- BC’s park system is falling flat in safeguarding biodiversity. The top half of ecological zones in BC that contain the most biodiversity are collectively home to 73 per cent of the species yet only contribute to 30 per cent of the total ecological zone area that’s protected in BC parks.
Join the movement The provincial government has signalled a biodiversity law is just on the horizon. But nothing’s going to happen unless the public demands it.
For the wild,
Charlotte Dawe
Conservation and Policy Campaigner
Wilderness Committee Donate | r0.
We respect your privacy. The Wilderness Committee will never rent, sell, or trade our mailing lists.
People powered wilderness preservation for a wild future.
Charitable Registration # 11929-3009-RR0001
Wilderness Committee
46 E. 6th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5T 1J4
Unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlilwətaɬ territories
Add us to your address book
