资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

September 4, 2019                               

Ottawa, Ontario - Over the past 50 years, the world’s wildlife populations have declined by 60%. In Canada, approximately 544 species have been identified as being at risk under the Species at Risk Act and the list is growing. The Government of Canada is committed to protecting and recovering aquatic species at risk, to benefit Canada’s biodiversity as well as local and Indigenous communities that rely on them. That’s why the Government of Canada is taking urgent and concrete actions to ensure that at-risk species are protected for future generations.

The Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, has signed six Critical Habitat Orders this year under the Species at Risk Act. The approved Critical Habitat Orders will allow for further protection of these at-risk species: Hotwater Physa, Western Brook Lamprey (Morrison Creek population), Salish Sucker, Round Hickorynut, Kidneyshell, and Lake Utopia Rainbow Smelt (small-bodied population). These are all species with small habitat ranges, many existing in only one watershed in the country.

A Critical Habitat Order focuses on protecting the functions, features and attributes of a species’ critical habitat in specific geographical locations that are essential to its survival. Critical habitat may include areas where species give birth, hatch, feed or raise their young. Activities are permitted on a case-by-case basis within the critical habitat of a species, provided that any proposed activities are assessed to ensure that the activities will not result in the destruction of critical habitat. A Critical Habitat Order applies to any ongoing or future human activities that could result in the destruction of any part of the identified critical habitat of an at-risk species.