Species at Risk Act annual report for 2018: chapter 1

1. Introduction

Every year the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada ^{Footnote 1} (the Minister) is required to table in Parliament the Species at Risk Act (SARA) annual report. This report summarizes key activities carried out in 2018 under SARA and fulfills the Minister’s obligation to report annually on the administration of the Act.

Section 126 of the Act states the report must include a summary of the following:

1.1 Background on SARA

SARA is a key tool for conserving and protecting Canada’s biological diversity, and fulfills the Government of Canada’s international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity. It also supports federal commitments under the 1996 Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk to prevent species in Canada from becoming extinct from human activity.

The purpose of the Act is:

The Act establishes a process for conducting scientific assessments of the status of individual wildlife species and a mechanism for listing extirpated, endangered, threatened and special-concern species. SARA includes requirements for the protection, recovery and management of listed wildlife species, their critical habitats^{Footnote 2}  and residences^{Footnote 3}.

The responsibility for conservation of species at risk is shared by federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada. The Act recognizes this joint responsibility and that all Canadians have a role to play in the protection of wildlife.

1.2 Implementation of SARA

The Minister is responsible for the overall administration of SARA, except insofar as the Act gives responsibility to another minister (i.e. another competent minister).

The Parks Canada Agency (PCA)^{Footnote 4} , Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), often referred to as the “competent” departments, share responsibility for the implementation of SARA. The ministers responsible for these organizations are known as the “competent” ministers under SARA. The Minister of the Environment is the minister responsible for both ECCC and PCA.

Figure 1. identifies the role of each competent minister.

1.3 Nature Legacy for Canada

The Nature Legacy for Canada Initiative, announced in Budget 2018, aims to protect Canada’s biodiversity, ecosystems and natural landscapes through the protection of lands and waters, and species at risk. Under the Initiative’s Canada Nature Fund, the government committed:

• up to $155 million over 5 years for conservation actions to protect and aid in the recovery of up to 200 terrestrial wildlife species under the Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada
• $55 million over 5 years for aquatic species through the Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk

Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada

In June 2018, the Federal, Provincial and Territorial (FPT) Ministers responsible for conservation, wildlife, and biodiversity agreed to the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Approach to Transforming Species at Risk Conservation in Canada^{Footnote 5} . This new approach will shift from a single-species approach to conservation to one that focuses on multiple species and ecosystems. Conservation efforts will be concentrated on priority places, species, sectors and threats across Canada. This will enable conservation partners to work together to achieve better outcomes for species at risk.

The following priority places, species, sectors and threats for terrestrial species at risk were confirmed by the FPT Deputy Ministers responsible for conservation, wildlife and biodiversity in December 2018:

Parks Canada places play a unique role in the Pan-Canadian approach, as entry points that can be leveraged to anchor and strengthen protection for species and biodiversity in the broader landscape. National parks are in or near many priority places, and Parks Canada has active conservation programs for a number of priority species, such as Greater Sage Grouse and Wood Bison.

Parks Canada has been using a site-based, multi-species approach to action planning to achieve broad conservation gains. As part of their work under Canada’s Nature Legacy, Parks Canada allocated approximately $2M in 2018-19 to projects that implemented more than 55 actions identified in SARA action plans.

An Indigenous Partnerships Initiative focuses on enabling Indigenous leadership in the implementation of the Pan-Canadian Approach and SARA. The Initiative provides support to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis to increase capacity to lead in the design and implementation of conservation measures for at-risk species and their habitat; negotiate and implement conservation agreements for the cooperative conservation of at-risk species; and support meaningful participation in the implementation of SARA.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is implementing the Nature Legacy Initiative through multi-species, place- and threat-based approaches to transform the way that aquatic species at risk are protected and recovered. DFO is undertaking this work and other key assessment, listing and recovery actions with the renewed capacity provided in the Nature Legacy Initiative.

This initiative also provided DFO with additional resources to engage with partners from across the country.

Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk

The Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk (CNFASAR) aims to build relationships with Indigenous peoples, provinces and territories, industry, and other partners for aquatic Species at Risk. The program focuses on places and threats selected as pan-Canadian priorities for protecting aquatic species at risk. With this approach, the CNFASAR is funding 58 projects over 5 years, which target over 75 populations of species at risk in 7 priority freshwater places and over 50 populations of species at risk associated with 2 marine threats.

The 7 freshwater places selected as priorities under CNFASAR are:

1. Fraser and Columbia Watersheds Priority Area (BC)
2. Rocky Mountains’ Eastern Slopes Priority Area (AB)
3. Southern Prairies Priority Area (AB, SK, MB)
4. Lower Great Lakes Watershed Priority Area (ON)
5. St. Lawrence Lowlands Priority Area (QC)
6. Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Rivers Priority Area (NB, NS, PEI)
7. And the Bay of Fundy and Southern Uplands Watersheds Priority Area (NS, NB)

The 2 marine priority threats which remain a focus for relevant projects under CNFASAR are:

1. fishing interactions - includes entanglements and bycatch of aquatic species at risk (geographic scope: all Canadian oceans)
2. and physical and acoustic disturbance - includes vessel collisions & marine noise (geographic scope: all Canadian oceans)