Wildlife Enforcement Directorate: annual summary 2018 to 2019
Full report: Wildlife Enforcement Directorate: annual report 2018 to 2019 [PDF]
The Wildlife Enforcement Directorate (WED) is a part of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Enforcement Branch (EB). WED is responsible for enforcing federal wildlife legislation that protects plant and animal species and their habitat in Canada. It also enforces legislation that protects many foreign species, such as endangered and threatened species in trade, migratory birds and some invasive species.
This annual summary covers the period of April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019. It reports on WED’s priorities, actions and achievements and includes information about enforcement highlights, people, partners and resources.
Our enforcement priorities focus on protecting species and habitats that are most at risk from conservation threats and/or illegal human activity.
We take a risk-based and intelligence-driven approach to developing our annual priorities for planned and targeted inspections. This allows us to identify potential offenders who could cause the worst damage, and to protect the species most at risk from non-compliant human activities. In addition, routine and complaints-based inspections continue to remain an important part of our enforcement program.
Our priorities
- Canadian species that are at high risk for conservation and/or high risk for non-compliance
- Habitats or protected areas at high risk for conservation and/or high risk for non-compliance
- Foreign species that are at high risk for conservation and/or high risk for non-compliance
Our 2018-2019 accomplishments
- This year marks the 100-year anniversary of wildlife law enforcement in Canada.
- In 2018-2019, we conducted 3,404 inspections and initiated 16 new investigations under the legislation we enforce.
- Our work resulted in 630 enforcement measures, including prosecutions, compliance orders, tickets and warnings.
- Our investigations led to 123 convictions and initiated 11 new prosecutions.
- Our efforts resulted in a total of $2,645,931 in penalties, as well as confiscations of such items as a black bear hide, 32 green winged teal carcasses, hunting equipment including a boat, shotguns, decoys and ammunition and over 10,000 vials of illegally imported herbal oil.
- The largest penalty we saw this year was $1,775,000.
Although this report offers a wide variety of information, it is impossible to include all of our annual activities in one document. To learn more about WED, visit the Wildlife enforcement and legislation Web site.
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