A cry for help from the wild

They are wild animals that future Canadians may 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.

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.

It is truly stunning to learn this vast and open country paradoxically no longer has a place for so many living things. Half of the species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles monitored by the World Wildlife Fund — 451 out of 903 — are in decline. Even more disturbing is how precipitous that decline is. On average, those 451 species lost 83 per cent of their populations between 1970 and 2014.

The barren-ground caribou population in the Canadian Arctic, for instance, has plunged from more than two million in the early 1990s to 800,000 today. While the little brown bat is an important predator of insects that include mosquitoes, flies and beetles, a fungal disease that arrived in eastern and central Canada just seven years ago has wiped out 94 per cent of the population in these areas. The powerful Atlantic bluefin tuna can speed through the ocean at speeds of 40 km/h, but because they are so coveted by commercial fishing interests, their numbers fell by 75 per cent over a 40-year period. These declining species are essential parts of a healthy environment — and a symptom of one that is ailing. Why aren’t we doing more to save them? We know climate change, pollution and habitat loss all resulting from human activity are ravaging nature. Governments have sworn to take action. 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. Although the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence estuary were listed as threatened in 2005, it took until 2012 for a recovery strategy to be released. This year, after their numbers dropped to 900 they were declared endangered.

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. In addition, the report says the country needs to step up studies of how climate change is impacting 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.