Law failing to protect biodiversity: study

OTTAWA — Researchers say inadequate funding and poor collaboration between governments and private landowners are behind the failure of Canada’s laws to protect endangered and threatened species.

“There is a sense with many parties that it’s not quite getting us where we want to be,” said Scott McFatridge of the Smart Prosperity Institute at the University of Ottawa.

“We need to take a more collaborative approach.”

The think tank released a report Friday that looks into the failures of and possible improvements to the Species At Risk Act, federal legislation passed 16 years ago intended to identify vulnerable plants and animals and to guide their recovery.

The report points to previous research suggesting the way the act is currently implemented is failing. That study found that of the more than 350 species being tracked by the committee that rules on threatened plants and animals, 85 per cent of them have seen no improvement or have deteriorated.

Last fall, the World Wildlife Fund released research that concluded being listed under the act made no difference at all to the fate of a species. Plants and animals on the list declined just as often and as rapidly as unlisted ones.

It’s not the act, said McFatridge.

“It’s a very flexible act and it has many different tools. It has to do with the implementation and political will among all the parties.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2013, the auditor general found Ottawa hadn’t met legal requirements for establishing recovery strategies and management plans.

That report concluded 146 recovery strategies were incomplete, over 90 per cent of required action plans hadn’t been completed and management plans for species of special concern were not completed in 42 per cent of cases.

Last fall, almost all the provinces failed to meet federal deadlines for caribou recovery plans.