Species at Risk Act: Report to Parliament, 2005.| Previous | Contents | Next | The List of Wildlife Species at RiskThe Species Listing Process under SARASARA establishes a process for conducting scientific assessments of the population status of individual species, and a mechanism for listing extirpated, endangered, threatened and special concern species. Schedule 1 of SARA is the official List of Wildlife Species at Risk. The Act separates the scientific assessment process from the listing decision, ensuring that scientists can provide fully independent recommendations, and that decisions affecting Canadians are made by elected officials who can be held accountable for those decisions. COSEWIC includes members from government, academia, Aboriginal organizations, non-government organizations and the private sector. Members have expertise in biology, ecology, genetics, Aboriginal traditional knowledge and other relevant disciplines. The Committee assesses the biological status of a species using the best available information, including scientific, community and Aboriginal traditional knowledge. COSEWIC can assess species as extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened, special concern, data deficient or not at risk. An extirpated species no longer exists in the wild in Canada, but exists elsewhere in the world. An endangered species faces imminent extirpation or extinction. A threatened species is likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction. A species of special concern may become threatened or endangered because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats. Further details on risk categories and more information on COSEWIC are available at www.cosewic.gc.ca. COSEWIC assessments and supporting evidence (i.e., rationale and status reports) are provided to the Minister of the Environment once a year, and are also posted on the SARA Public Registry. Upon receiving COSEWIC's assessments, the Minister of the Environment has 90 days to include in the Public Registry a report indicating how he or she intends to respond to each assessment and, to the extent possible, providing timelines for receipt by the Governor in Council (GiC). These response statements are posted on the SARA Public Registry, and public consultations on species eligible for listing are launched. Extended consultation periods are required for some species. When consultations are complete, the Minister of the Environment submits the assessments to the GiC. Within nine months of receiving the COSEWIC assessment, the GiC may, on the recommendation of the Minister of the Environment, by Order: (a) accept the assessment and add the species to Schedule 1; (b) decide not to add the species to Schedule 1; or (c) refer the matter back to COSEWIC for further consideration or information. If the GiC has not made a decision within nine months, Schedule 1 shall be amended, by Order, in accordance with COSEWIC's assessment. Species that were designated at risk by COSEWIC prior to October 1999 must be reassessed using revised criteria before they can be considered for addition to Schedule 1. These species are listed on Schedules 2 and 3, and are not yet officially protected under SARA. Once all the species on Schedules 2 and 3 have been reassessed, these Schedules will be eliminated, and species will simply be listed or not listed under Schedule 1 of the Act. The following chart provides further details of the species listing process. The Species Listing Process under SARA SARA separates the scientific assessment process from the listing decision. This approach ensures that scientists can provide fully independent recommendations, and that decisions affecting Canadians are made by elected officials who can be held accountable for those decisions. The following chart shows the Species Listing Process Under SARA Activities to Support the Listing Process in 2005When SARA was proclaimed in June 2003, the official List of Wildlife Species at Risk (Schedule 1 of SARA) included 233 species. In 2005, 112 more species were added to the original list, for a total of 345 listed species (Table 1). Appendix 1 provides a complete list of species added to Schedule 1 in 2005. In 2005, species previously assessed by COSEWIC continued to proceed through various stages of the listing process, including extensive consultations with interested parties. Drafting of a Federal Listing and De-listing Policy was also initiated in April 2005. The following sections describe activities carried out in 2005 for species that were assessed by COSEWIC between May 2002 and May 2005. These species can be grouped into three batches as follows:
The Federal Government's Response to COSEWIC's AssessmentsAt its November 2004 and May 2005 meetings, COSEWIC assessed a total of 73 species (Batch 3). Of these 73 species, 55 were assessed as at risk, and their assessments were forwarded to the Minister of the Environment in August 2005. In November 2005, the Minister of the Environment posted response statements for these 55 species assessments on the SARA Public Registry. The assessments for 39 of the 55 species were forwarded to the GiC in November 2005. The remaining 16 species were aquatic species that required extended consultations before their assessments could be transmitted to the GiC, as their listing was determined to have potential significant impacts on the activities of Aboriginal peoples, commercial and recreational fishers, and Canadians at large. In May 2005, COSEWIC conducted an emergency assessment of the Okanagan population of Chinook Salmon in response to a request by the Fisheries Department of the Okanagan Nation Alliance. By the end of 2005, the Minister of the Environment had not yet formed an opinion as to whether this species faced an imminent threat. Consultations under SARAIn November 2005, the Minister of the Environment launched consultations on amending the List of Wildlife Species at Risk under SARA. A document entitled Consultation on Amending the List of Species under the Species at Risk Act: November 2005 was prepared and posted on the SARA Public Registry as a tool to facilitate consultations. This publication pertained to 33 terrestrial species from Batch 3. Approximately 1000 copies of the document were distributed to targeted stakeholders including provincial and territorial governments, wildlife management boards, Aboriginal communities, and other stakeholders and affected parties. In 2005, Fisheries and Oceans Canada completed consultations on the proposed listing of seven species from Batch 2 that underwent extended consultations, and six species from Batch 3. Fisheries and Oceans Canada also launched extended consultations on 16 other Batch 3 species (four marine mammals and 12 fishes). Consultations were facilitated through workbooks and other supporting documents posted on the SARA Public Registry and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada web site. Workbooks were mailed directly to other government departments, stakeholders, Aboriginal peoples and non-government organizations. Meetings were also held with interested or potentially affected individuals, organizations and Aboriginal peoples. In order to efficiently organize consultations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada grouped species according to geographical location, and used existing mechanisms such as pre-scheduled recovery strategy workshops and regular industry consultation meetings as vehicles for discussion of potential implications and concerns as a result of listing species under SARA. Fisheries and Oceans Canada also continued to implement its socio-economic analysis stakeholder and academic review process for several aquatic species. Meetings were held with provincial representatives, Aboriginal groups, industry representatives, environmental non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders in order to review the draft socio-economic analysis reports and incorporate the input of these groups. The Parks Canada Agency continued to work with Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2005 to ensure that all stakeholders were consulted, and to avoid duplication of consultation efforts. Listing Decisions under SARAIn 2005, 112 species were added to Schedule 1 of SARA, decisions were made not to add eight species to Schedule 1, and the assessments of three species were referred back to COSEWIC for further information or consideration. Table 2, below, summarizes the stage of the listing process reached by species from all Batches at the end of 2005, and gives projected dates for next steps. Appendix 1 of this report provides details on species added to the List of Wildlife Species at Risk in 2005. Table 2: Consultation Processes, Recommendations, Listing Decisions and Projected Timelines for Batch 1, 2, and 3 Species at the End of the 2005 Calendar Year In January 2005, of the 79 Batch 1 species whose assessments were received by the GiC in April 2004 (see Table 2):
Of the five species that were not added to Schedule 1, the Northwestern population of Grizzly Bear, the Polar Bear, and the Western population of Wolverine were not listed in order to allow for further consultation with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. In July 2005, following consultations with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, the GiC decided to refer the assessment for the Polar Bear back to COSEWIC for further information and consideration. The Cultus and Sakinaw populations of Sockeye Salmon were not listed because the social and economic costs of listing were considered unacceptably high. The assessment of the Speckled Dace was referred back to COSEWIC for further information and consideration. In July 2005, of the 44 Batch 2 species whose assessments were received by the GiC in October 2004 (see Table 2):
Of the four species that were not added to Schedule 1, the Peary Caribou, the Barren-ground Caribou (Dolphin and Union population), and the Porsild's Bryum moss were not listed in order to allow for further consultation with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and the Government of Nunavut. The Plains Bison was not listed because the social and economic costs of listing were considered unacceptably high. The assessment of the Dwarf Woolly-head was referred back to COSEWIC for further information and consideration. In July 2005, following extended consultations, the GiC received the assessments of 12 aquatic species from Batch 1. In December 2005, the Minister of the Environment's listing recommendations to the GiC for these 12 species were published in Canada Gazette Part I. For these 12 species, the Minister proposed that:
The three Atlantic Cod populations (Newfoundland and Labrador, Laurentian North, and Maritime populations) that were not added to Schedule 1 were not listed for several reasons, including complexities associated with the differing biological status and socio-economic and management implications of each cod stock. The assessments for the Arctic population of Atlantic Cod, the Bocaccio, the Cusk, the Northwest Atlantic population of Harbour Porpoise, the Shortjaw Cisco, and the Lake Winnipeg Physa Snail were returned to COSEWIC for further information or consideration. The decisions not to list certain species were based on scientific assessments by COSEWIC, on consultations with governments, Aboriginal peoples, wildlife management boards, stakeholders and the Canadian public, and on analyses of benefits and costs to Canadians. Additional details concerning GiC decisions not to list species or to refer species assessments back to COSEWIC are provided in the Orders published in the Canada Gazette, which are available on the SARA Public Registry at www.sararegistry.gc.ca. In November 2005, the GiC received the assessments of seven species from Batch 2 and 39 species from Batch 3. Under SARA, the GiC has 9 months following the receipt of species assessments to come to a decision concerning the listing of those species. |
