‘Need to get on with it:’ Ottawa promises more action on species at risk law
OTTAWA — Federal officials are promising tighter enforcement of laws to protect species at risk after a pair of studies found little change in the status of threatened plants and animals.
“We need to get on with it,” said Bob McLean, a director of the Canadian Wildlife Service, an Environment Canada agency.
McLean was responding to a University of Ottawa study released last week that found 85 per cent of more than 350 species tracked under the Species At Risk Act have seen no improvement or have deteriorated.
That study echoed research released last fall by the World Wildlife Fund. It concluded that being listed under the 16-year-old 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.