Tag Archives: Species at Risk

Animals

Vanishing Voices: The Global At Risk Species Crisis and Cortes Island

Originally published, as part 6 of the Cortes Island Resonance series by the Cortes Community Radio Society.

Across the globe, the accelerating loss of biodiversity is sounding alarms among scientists, conservationists, and communities that recognize nature as more than scenery—it is the living fabric of our survival. The United Nations warns we are in the midst of an extinction crisis “at least tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural process of extinctions.”

In Canada, where biodiversity is heralded as a national treasure, action is falling gravely short—and British Columbia is a prime example. Despite being the most biologically diverse province in the country, B.C. still lacks legislation specifically designed to protect species at risk. 

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Animals, Politics

‘No end in sight’ for systematic killing of BC wolves to save caribou

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Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The BC government spent a decade killing wolves to protect caribou. Now, critics warn that despite questions about its effectiveness, ethics and impact on the rest of the environment, the government is moving to make the wolf cull a permanent part of its strategy. 

Launched as a short-term emergency measure in 2015, the decade-long wolf cull is a morally outrageous tactic to divert public attention from the root cause of caribou declines — the province’s failure to significantly address habitat destruction — said Pacific Wild co-founder Ian McAllister.

“Wolves are just paying the ultimate price for total government negligence, and there’s no end in sight,” he said.  

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Environment, Politics

Q&A With NIPR’s Green Party On Some Key Environmental Questions

While the Canadian government likes to think of itself as a leader in environmental stewardship, there have been a number of concerns: 

  • A lack of urgency in addressing climate change
  • While the number of extreme weather events continues to increase in both size and magnitude, so does Canada’s production of the fossil fuel products that are the leading contributor to our emissions. In 2024, Canada’s oil production reached a record 5.7 million barrels per day, with  the oil sands accounting for approximately 57% of this output.
  • Weak enforcement and monitoring of environmental laws and regulations
  • According to COSEWIC, there are now 850 Canadian wildlife species at risk, but the government is very slow to respond to this growing crisis.

Cortes Currents emailed the Conservative, Green, Liberal, and NDP campaign headquarters in North Island Powell River (NIPR) a list of questions designed to get to the heart of this matter. So far only Mark de Bruijn, Campaign Manager for the Greens and a former Green candidate in 2019, has answered.  

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Forests

Proposed Conservation Area In The Manson Bay Forest

The Nature Trust of British Columbia wants to purchase 35.7 acres in the Manson Bay Forest for a land conservancy. They have already raised about half of the necessary funding and have until December 31 to raise the remaining $408,000. 

“One of the landowners has come forward, and they’re interested in selling the land for conservation. They’ve never developed the land, and they’d like to see it stay in the intact condition that it is right now. We are working with them to purchase the land so that we can prevent the conversion of habitat to residential use and maintain the habitat values for the species at risk that live on Cortes Island,” explained Dr Jasper Lament, CEO of the Nature Trust of British Columbia.

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Animals

Canada’s Unidentified And Unprotected Species at Risk

According to the United Nations, global diversity loss is one of the world’s most pressing emergencies. “Intense human activities, such as land-use change, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and the introduction of invasive species, is causing an extinction acceleration that is at least tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural process of extinctions.”  More than 400 vertebrate species have been lost over the past 100 years. The populations of close to half the species listed by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals ‘are showing population declines’ and 97% of the fish species are ‘threatened with extinction.’ 

Canada made an international commitment to protect species at risk, but a new report from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada found we are not providing the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) with anywhere near the the support it needs. 

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