Species at Risk Act: Report to Parliament, 2005.

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The SARA Public Registry

• Purposes of the SARA Public Registry
• Use of the Public Registry in 2005

Purposes of the SARA Public Registry

The SARA Public Registry fulfils the requirement under the Act for the Minister of the Environment to establish a public registry for the purpose of facilitating access to SARA-related documents. The Public Registry was developed as an online resource, and has been accessible since the proclamation of SARA in 2003. In addition to providing access to documents and information related to the Act, the Public Registry provides a forum to submit comments on SARA-related documents being developed by the Government of Canada.

Section 123 of SARA identifies documents that must be published on the Public Registry, including:

• regulations and orders made under the Act;
• agreements entered into under section 10 of the Act;
• COSEWIC's criteria for the classification of wildlife species;
• status reports on wildlife species that COSEWIC has had prepared or has received with an application;
• the List of Wildlife Species at Risk;
• codes of practice, national standards or guidelines established under the Act;
• agreements and reports filed under section 111 or subsection 113(2) of the Act, or notices that these have been filed in court and are available to the public; and
• all reports made under sections 126 and 128 of the Act.

Other documents prepared in response to the requirements of SARA, including recovery strategies, action plans, management plans, and reports on round table meetings are also posted on the Public Registry.

The SARA Public Registry is maintained through the collaborative efforts of partners and stakeholders, and is an important tool in engaging and informing Canadians on species at risk issues and supporting public participation in decision-making related to species at risk.

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Use of the Public Registry in 2005

A number of new documents were added to the SARA Public Registry in 2005, including the 2003-2004 SARA Annual Report and COSEWIC annual reports, COSEWIC status reports and species assessments, Ministerial response statements, Orders, administrative agreements, and permit explanations. A series of fact sheets was also added to provide information on SARA and its requirements for compliance.

The Public Registry continued to be an important tool to facilitate public consultations on proposed species listings and residence descriptions in 2005. Efforts also focused on the production of e-mail newsletters to provide updates to SARA Public Registry subscribers. As a result of public consultations and outreach efforts, usage of the SARA Public Registry increased in 2005 (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Average Monthly Visits per Year to the SARA Public Registry

The following table shows the average monthly visits to the SARA Public Registry, by year.

Between the months of June 2003 (when the Registry was launched) and December of 2003 the average monthy visits was 8752. For 2004 the average monthy visits was 21 743 and for 2005 the average monthy visits was 37 340.

The Public Registry can be accessed at www.sararegistry.gc.ca

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