Tag Archives: WWF

Nature

Canada misses target to protect quarter of land and water, audits find

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

Canada has failed to meet its promise to protect a quarter of the country’s lands and waters by the end 2025, a trio of new federal audits shows.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Parks Canada aren’t on track to meet conservation targets for terrestrial or marine areas by year’s end, reports from environment and sustainable development commissioner Jerry DeMarco show.

Continue reading Canada misses target to protect quarter of land and water, audits find →
Animals

Canada’s wildlife woes show nature is foundational in nation-building

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wildlife populations are plummeting while risks to nature rise across Canada as governments loosen environmental regulations to fast-track major projects, a World Wildlife Fund study shows.

A little over half of the 910 vertebrate species monitored between 1970 to 2022 are in decline, according to WWF-Canada’s latest Living Planet Report, which tracks changes in national wildlife populations across different habitats. 

Continue reading Canada’s wildlife woes show nature is foundational in nation-building →
Rivers & Oceans

Federal ministers sued over lack of action on endangered orcas

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

For a second time, the world watched as Tahlequah, an endangered southern resident killer whale, struggled to keep her dead newborn calf afloat in the Salish Sea.

But with Ottawa failing to take urgent action to protect the 73 remaining orcas, a coalition of environmental groups is suing two federal ministers to push them to assume their legal responsibility and recommend an emergency order to save the West Coast icons.

Continue reading Federal ministers sued over lack of action on endangered orcas →
Animals, Rivers & Oceans

It’s a new season of whale song on the West Coast

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Autumn is the season of whale song on the Pacific Northwest Coast, says longtime researcher Janie Wray. 

Male humpbacks off the B.C. coast are beginning to get vocal — practising and modifying a supernatural and intricate song that is transmitted and almost simultaneously adopted among themselves before and during their winter migration to warmer climes.

Continue reading It’s a new season of whale song on the West Coast →
Energy

Court challenge dropped after Chevron surrenders offshore oil and gas permits in B.C. ocean conservation hot spots

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Environmental groups have dropped a court case against Chevron Canada after it surrendered a number of historical oil and gas permits posing risks to sensitive marine conservation areas on the B.C. coast. 

Chevron voluntarily gave up 19 permits in the Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area north of Vancouver Island and in rare protected glass sponge reefs in Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound.

The fossil fuel giant made the announcement after the David Suzuki Foundation and World Wildlife Fund Canada, represented by the legal charity Ecojustice, launched a court challenge disputing the permits in July 2022. 

Continue reading Court challenge dropped after Chevron surrenders offshore oil and gas permits in B.C. ocean conservation hot spots →