Species at Risk Act annual report for 2018: chapter 2
2. Assessment of species at risk
SARA defines the process for conducting assessments of the status of individual wildlife species. The Act separates the assessment process from the listing decisions, ensuring scientists provide independent assessments and that decisions affecting Canadians are made by elected officials who are accountable for those decisions.
2.1 COSEWIC assessments
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) is made up of wildlife experts from government, academia, Indigenous organizations, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. It assesses the status of wildlife species in Canada that it considers to be at risk and identifies existing and potential threats to the species.
The federal government provides financial support to COSEWIC. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) provides COSEWIC with professional, technical, secretarial, clerical and other assistance via the COSEWIC Secretariat, which is housed within ECCC.
COSEWIC assesses the status of a wildlife species using the best available information on the biological status of a species, including scientific knowledge, community knowledge and Indigenous traditional knowledge. COSEWIC prioritizes species for assessment and, as one of its sources of information, uses the general status ranks that are outlined in the report called Wild Species – The General Status of Species in Canada. This report is required under section 128 of the Act and is published every five years by ECCC and the National General Status Working Group. COSEWIC provides assessments and supporting evidence annually to the Minister.
Figure 2. Categories of wildlife species status used by COSEWIC
Categories of wildlife species status used by COSEWIC
- Extinct
Wildlife species no longer exists anywhere in the world.
- Extirpated
Wildlife species no longer exists in the wild in Canada but exists elsewhere in the world.
- Endangered
- wildlife species faces imminent extirpation or extinction.
- Threatened
- wildlife species is likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction.
- Special concern
- wildlife species may become threatened or endangered because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats.
- Not at risk
- the wildlife species has no immediate risk or COSEWIC may not have sufficient information to classify the species.
Note: More information on risk categories and COSEWIC can be found on the COSEWIC website.
ECCC, Parks Canada Agency (PCA), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) provide scientific input into the assessment process through staff experts who are members of COSEWIC, as well as through the population surveys that they conduct on some species of interest to COSEWIC. They are also regularly involved in the peer review of COSEWIC status reports. The peer review involves government scientists, experts from academia, and other stakeholders.
2.1.1 COSEWIC subcommittees
COSEWIC’s Species Specialists Sub-committees (SSCs) provide species expertise to COSEWIC. Each SSC is led by two co-chairs and members are recognized Canadian experts in the taxonomic group in question with a demonstrated knowledge of wildlife conservation. Members are drawn from universities, provincial wildlife agencies, museums, Conservation Data Centres, and other sources of expertise on Canadian species. SSC members support the co-chairs in developing candidate lists of species to be considered for assessment, commissioning status reports for priority species, reviewing reports for scientific accuracy and completeness, and proposing to COSEWIC a status for each species. Currently, COSEWIC has 10 SSCs.
Figure 3. COSEWIC Sub-committees
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Arthropods
- Birds
- Freshwater fishes
- Marine fishes
- Marine mammals
- Molluscs
- Mosses and lichens
- Terrestrial mammals
- Vascular plants
COSEWIC also established an Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee. In 2018 this committee continued its efforts to produce:
- ATK Source Reports (which compile potential sources of ATK)
- ATK Assessment Reports (which summarize the relevant content of documented ATK sources)
- ATK Gathering Reports (which compile non-publicly available documented and non-documented ATK that is shared directly from Indigenous communities).
In 2018, the ATK Sub-committee also completed:
- a number of ATK reports for wildlife species such as Grizzly Bear, American Eel and Eulachon
- an ATK Framework Approach report to explore the methodology for ATK gathering for Lake Sturgeon
Ongoing work includes the prioritization and selection of wildlife species for which ATK reports will be completed as well as the review of COSEWIC status reports to ensure that available ATK is appropriately and accurately integrated.
2.2 Wildlife species
From 2002 to 2017, COSEWIC assessed and classified more than 900 wildlife species in 15 batches. Batch 16, consisting of 90 wildlife species, was assessed between November 2017 to April 2018. COSEWIC forwarded these assessments to the Minister of the Environment in October 2018, which included:
- one wildlife species examined and found to be data deficient
- eleven wildlife species assessed as not at risk (includes one species previously assessed as special concern, listed on Schedule 1 of SARA)
- two wildlife species assessed as extinct
- 76 wildlife species assessed as at risk, of which 27 were confirmed at the classification already attributed to them on Schedule 1 of SARA
On January 10, 2018, COSEWIC’s Emergency Assessment Sub-committee conducted an emergency assessment of Steelhead Trout (Thompson River population and Chilcotin River population) and found both to be endangered. On February 13, 2018, COSEWIC informed the Minister of this assessment and made a recommendation that they be listed on Schedule 1 on an emergency basis. Full status reports are in progress and COSEWIC will be assessing both species at the Wildlife Species Assessment meeting in April 2020.
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