A cry for help from the wild

They are wild animals a future Canada might never know. They are the beluga whale, the barren-ground caribou, the bobolink, the gigantic lake sturgeon and the little brown bat.

And a new report from the World Wildlife Fund has revealed these and other creatures great and small are disappearing at a shocking rate despite government promises to save them.

Released last week, the Living Planet Report Canada is at once an indictment of human recklessness, an alarm over where we are going and a timely call to action.

Half of the species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles monitored by the World Wildlife Fund — 451 out of 903 — are in decline. On average, those 451 species lost 83 per cent of their populations between 1970 and 2014.

Yet one of the most disturbing findings of the report is that the Species at Risk Act, passed by Ottawa in 2004, has failed to slow the decline in many species.

The report urges Canada to do a better job of making its Species at Risk Act work by focusing on protecting entire ecosystems instead of individual species.

It calls on our governments to stop the decline in so many wildlife species by expanding Canada’s network of protected areas. It says the country needs to step up studies of how climate change is affecting wildlife.

The Living Planet Report Canada reads like a stark warning from a trusted doctor. We must act now so a future report doesn’t read like an obituary.

Waterloo Region Record