Endangering Wildlife and Biodiversity

British Columbia is an incredible repository of the earth's biodiversity. It is estimated that British Columbia is home to three quarters of the biodiversity of Canada including 70% of all bird species and 74% of all land-dwelling mammal species found in Canada, and most of these are forest dwelling.²⁸

There are 743 plants and animals in B.C. listed as endangered, threatened or vulnerable, plus an estimated 800 invertebrate species at risk. The British Columbia State of the Environment reporting office reported that one in ten plants and vertebrate animals in B.C. is facing extinction. A study by the B.C. Environment Ministry listed logging as one of the leading causes of endangerment of species.

Despite opinion polls showing that 96% of British Columbians want legal protection for endangered species, the government continues to ignore public calls to introduce an endangered species act.

There is currently no mechanism in B.C. for ensuring the protection of endangered species.

In fact the Forest Practices Code was marketed as protecting fish, wildlife, endangered species and their habitat from the harmful effects of logging.

In terms of wildlife protection, there are five mechanisms in the Code for protecting biodiversity: the designation of landscape units as high, medium or low biodiversity; identified wildlife species -- "species at risk" which need the retention of forest canopy, as determined by the Ministry of Environment and the Chief Forester; old growth management areas (reserves of old-growth set aside); sensitive areas; and wildlife habitat areas.

According to the Code, the presence of any one of these factors in an area is supposed to prevent clearcutting

But here's the reality:

Mechanisms for protecting endangered species under the Code

With no endangered species act and a refusal to implement the elements of the Code that might protect some endangered species, many B.C. wildlife species are in jeopardy.

One specific example is the woodland caribou. Logging companies are set to clearcut 35% of key caribou habitat in central B.C., while creating a checkerboard of clearcuts that will fragment their winter range. The current logging plan threatens the outright extinction of an internationally significant herd of 1,500 woodland caribou under provincial stewardship.³⁰

Endangered salmon stocks provide another telling case study. In October 1996, a two-year study by the American Fisheries Society was released and showed that more than 140 stocks of salmon have become extinct in British Columbia and 624 more salmon stocks are at high risk in the province.³¹

Nevertheless, during that same month, B.C.'s Environment Ministry launched a glossy 30-page booklet at the World Conservation Union's meeting in Montreal outlining steps the Ministry has taken to protect biodiversity -- steps it claimed are "second to none" in the world.³²